just looking for a some what ok video camera. I went today and looked and there were so many in my price range that i couldn't make up my mind. I just want the camera to have some kind of stabilizing system, night vison, good sound and good quality. My price range is somewhere around $300-500...i know nothing about video cameras so any ideas help... Thanks Evan
If you have a computer(lap top or desk top) get a camera with Hard Drive in it. I think that would be the biggest difference between the cameras right now. Some have MiniDV tapes that are good but HD cameras are way better.
The HD cameras that I've seen suck ****. The hard drives are very susceptible to shock damage from dropping, rattling, etc... The two that i've seen require you to use their software to view and save the videos. Which is kinda crappy. If I were you, I'd go on eBay and try to score a Panasonic PVGS150. It's a discontinued model, but after a ton of research I found that it is by far one of the best mini-DV video cams made. It has 3 CCDs which makes night and low light video less grainy and brighter. The videos are easy to save and edit. It takes 2 megapixel images to a memory card. If you want to see mine, I can show it to you. Seriously, avoid the HD cams until they can come up with a system that isn't so fragile.
^ +1 on tape, especially if you are planning on doing in-car stuff. Supposedly the hard drive cams don't handle that kind of vibration so well. But the tape will be more time-consuming if you are planning on dumping it all into the computer. If you have an HDTV, I would look at getting into a Sony HDR-HC3, eBay for $500-$600. The low-light may not be as good, but it does have the Nightshot. And watching an autox run play back at full Hi-def resolution is pretty f'in sweet imho. Otherwise the Panasonic is probably your best bet.
Also, the Panasonic PVGS-150 has excellent stabilizing system. There are a couple vids of me driving around that had very little noticable shake...usually on shifts it would give a little wobble. And yes, tape can be more time consuming for sure. But I'd rather have the reliability of a good Mini-DV camera that may last for years over a Harddrive Cam that has a failed harddrive after 2-3 sessions strapped to a camera mount in a car.
That Panasonic is a great camera. 3 CCD, even small 1/6" ones like that, are still better than the larger, single CCD cams that are on the consumer market. IIRC the Panasonics also use Leica optics. I'm not a fan of the CMOS HDV cams that Sony is releasing. I've seen HDV source from some of the earlier consumer ones and the image-smoothing on them isn't very good. In fact you can buy some used prosumer cams (like an XL-1) for the less which provide much better definition. Once Sony fixes this issue for their consumer lines they'll probably be a bit better quality but I wouldn't jump on the HD camcorder bandwagon just yet unless you're price range is a lot higher.
Yessir, mine has the Leica optics. But it got rid of them in the replacement generation PV-GS59 and GS180 models. Crappy replacements. Make sure if you do decide to get one you find it used, they wont be available new, and that it says PV-GS150...It has the Leica lens and comes with hotshoe and remote control with microphone.
