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your camera pick for this situation?
Hello,
I need to pick a camcorder to produce short web video clips of various people at our company talking about our product. We plan to purchase some good video lights and will record in our conference room.I love Vegas and currently have version 7, so editing will be done there.
Budget for the camera is less than $800. The current crop of cameras I see seem to be heading toward HD and AVCHD. While I like the idea of solidstate (or Hard Drive) recording to avoid the hastles of transferring from tape to the PC, I don’t think we really need HD. For instance, we won’t be producing DVDs and I doubt we need to deliver HD over the web. Also, I’m a bit worried that the AVCHD format will be a pain during editing.
So, my favorite camera in this range so far is the Canon HG20. But, under these circumstance, maybe it would be better to find a standard def camcorder?
Main requirements regardless of format:
– Good-Great video quality
– external mic jack (mini jack is fine)
– headphone jack
– ability to be mounted on tripod
– prefer not to deal with miniDV tapes, but not a deal-breaker
– less than $800
– works will with Sony Vegas 7 (though I’d be willing to upgrade to the latest Vegas)REALLY appreciate all opinions here!
Best,
Jeff -
7 Replies
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I have an HG10. AVCHD can be imported directly from the HG10 (or) 20, into SONY Vegas Pro 8c (you need 8c because even 8b has some problems with AVCHD). 8c will play AVCHD from the timeline with a minimum of Dual Core PC, but quad core is better and works great.
That’s my experience. JK -
Thanks John. Perfect.
Maybe a dumb question: when you are finished editing AVCHD from your H10, can you render it to something standard def for the web. Like the default broadband .wmv?
Best,
Jeff -
Canon HV20/30, very good (for a consumer) low light.
Indoor 25p & Cine Mode, you won’t need more than “reading light”.
odd magne nilsen
newbie
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You may render AVCHD on the V8c timeline to any format available in Vegas 8c, such as HD, SD, bluray, quicktime etc. jk
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Canon’s HV30 has been on sale at bhphotovideo ($600) and is a terrific little camera, especially when run at 24 or 30 fps. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/539289-REG/Canon_2680B001_VIXIA_HV30_HDV_Camcorder.html#features) Be sure to order an extra battery (largest size) at the same time. This camera records to tape.
From advance reviews, the Canon Vixia HF S10 and S100 are even better, but they are not yet out and will no doubt cost more than your $800 figure. I am guessing the reason the HV30 has dropped so much in price is due to the fact it will soon be replaced by the Vixia models, which record, by the way, to flash memory.
Do you have a tripod?
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Thanks Rick. Yes, I do have a tripod. The HV30 looks interesting. As I understand it, HDV recorded to tape is far easier/faster to edit than AVCHD in sony Vegas, right? So, the only downside would be the limited recording time on tapes… and well… dealing with tapes.
The HG20 looks like similar specs, except the hard-drive/flash record and AVCHD.
Same dang price, too! Not making this easy for me, ha!
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If you want to go to AVCHD you MUST upgrade to the latest version of Vegas. I’m not sure what the recording time is on the HG20. But check it out. Probably about the same as recording to tape on the HV30. To my mind, having a physical tape as a master storage medium has some distinct advantages over disk or some version of flash cards. With the latter, once you have filled up the card/disk, you have to download it to some other medium, usually a computer. Then you have to erase the master. After that you can go on shooting. With a tape system, you simply eject the old tape and insert the new, and continue shooting.
There are other options, but given your budget, sounds to me like the HV30 would be a simple and effective solution. If you go for the HG20 you must also factor in upgrading your Vegas, which in itself is not a bad thing to do.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com
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