Best inexpensive prosumer HD camera for motion tracking/greenscreen work

[Adam Taylor]

If you want to do greenscreen, then avoid HDV or DV cameras. Search the forum – its been discussed many times.
The cameras simply do not record enough colour data for useful keying.

However, some HDV/DV cameras have an hd/sdi output that you can record from, and that sends a clean signal (ie, before it has been compressed for the record to tape). If you have a decent video capture card (or a digibeta deck) then you could record direct to those and have high quality and usable footage.

adam

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Anders Hattne]

Cool!
Just checked and the camera here has HDMI output. Really want to give that a try!!!

http://www.ardillamedia.com

[Anders Hattne]

No… not yet (although I don’t know whether it’s worth getting one just to play around with it. Might come in handy in the future!)

I did see a “Avermedia AVerTV HD DVR PCI Express Video Capture Card”
for $98!

I’ve only recently learnt about this 4:2:2 ..compression. So I’m really curious to what result I can get. Maybe the camera’s manual holds that answer – or would it be a combination of the camera and the capture card?

http://www.ardillamedia.com

[Ej Hassenfratz]

thanks so much for the input and advice!

maybe i should just start with a camera that is suitable enough for some 3d motion tracking? is an HDV cam good enough or am i going to run into the same quality issues as discussed about the greenscreen? probably not, right considering 3d motion tracking really doesn’t need perfect color information, just spacial data and sharp reproduction.

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ej.hassenfratz
senior.graphic.designer
wjla-nc8/eyedesyn.com
washington.dc