What’s the best camcorder for shooting Web video?
David Johnson July 25th, 2006
Ok, Mr. and Ms. Smartypants, time for another famous lostremote soundoff. Management says it is time to embrace this online video thing and send any able and willing body out to capture clips and post them. As usual, the trick is to make it cheap, good, easy to use, and –did i mention?– cheap. Let’s hear your recommended rig for arming a newbie web warrior to shoot good quality web video.
19 Comments Add your own
1. thomas | July 25th, 2006 at 8:52 am
I guess it really depends on what you call cheap? There are quite a few sub-$1000 camcorders out there that would be able to provide adequate video quality for the web. I am going to assume that you will be creating video =
2. thomas | July 25th, 2006 at 8:53 am
Hmm, I guess the rest of my post doesnt want to show up, oh well.
3. Z | July 25th, 2006 at 9:00 am
Depending on your setup, you might find one of the newer “hard drive” camcorders to work best for transfering video to your computer.
Among cheap cameras, you probably won’t notice a heck of a lot of difference between the models in the same price range.
If the hard drive thing doesn’t appeal to you, run out to your local electronics store and pick up a few to feel how they feel to hold, to use, etc. That’s the key to using them well–if you don’t feel comfortable with the camera, the video’s probably going to suffer.
I’ve long preferred the Sony line for usability, but Canon also gets strong marks.
4. Ralph Riccardi | July 25th, 2006 at 9:24 am
Spending the extra money on a “hard drive” camera with HDV format keeps the option of traditional broadcast delivery open. I like and use Sony, but all the majors have good products.
5. John | July 25th, 2006 at 10:54 am
You can put video on an Internet?
Sincerely,
Sen. Stevens, R-Alaska
6. bluecrayola | July 25th, 2006 at 11:08 am
I;m loving the RCA Small Wonder is the coolest thing out there. For only $124.
7. Sam Livingston | July 25th, 2006 at 11:20 am
The Sony HDR-HC1 is small (1.7 lbs) and inexpensive ($1300), and shoots HDV. It’s one of the few consumer cameras that has an external mic imput so you don’t have to use the lame camera microphone. There is a USB to connect to the computer too. Add a wide angle adapter and a longer lasting battery to the standard order and you’re good to go. Oh yeah.. It takes great stills as well.
8. thedetroitchannel | July 25th, 2006 at 12:26 pm
this guy is only asking because christmas is exactly 5 months from today.
9. joevideo | July 25th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
i use a kodak v550 digital still camera, which takes 640×480 video as .mov files. good video, can upload to youtube/myspace or wherever… audio is not manually controllable, can’t use an external mic, but good for “run and gun” stuff. camera runs about $300 now. also shoots nice stills, easy to use menu functions….
10. Cory | July 25th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
I’ll second Sam’s recommendation of the HDR-HC1. Quality without expense.
11. Dan Riley | July 25th, 2006 at 3:42 pm
Good looking video isn’t just about the camera.
Almost any consumer or prosumer camera can make
decent video. For good pictures you need a light
on the camera and a high quality shotgun mic, also
on the camera if you want an “easy” one man band.
As for efficiency of operation, then you need to
look at hard drive cameras or ones that allow you to
connect the stand alone hard drive boxes to the
camera. This allows for file transfer of material
instead of realtime playback into your servers.
This could save you significant amounts of time
getting it to air or web. There are disk cameras too
but they aren’t as fast at transferring and the file
types could be an issue.
Dan
12. Anonymous | July 25th, 2006 at 7:27 pm
If you asked one of my collegues, you’d get this answer
One of these
http://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBusiness/markets/10014/market_10014.shtml
Plus this
http://www.avid.com/
-OR-
http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/finalcutpro/
And
http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/flashpro/
Okay, they do tend to be rather picky about video on the web
13. T | July 25th, 2006 at 11:03 pm
What about all the photographers who are union? How are they going to feel about every Tom, Dick and Harry shooting video?
14. saundra | July 26th, 2006 at 5:40 am
“What about all the photographers who are union? How are they going to feel about every Tom, Dick and Harry shooting video?” -
They’re already screaming bloody murder but if they want to survive long-term, they should use some of the time they should be honing their reporting and writing skills.
15. Rob | July 26th, 2006 at 2:46 pm
I went with a Sony MiniDV Camera for about $400. Cheap, very durable, decent sound quality and easy for any novice to use. Put it together with a Dell laptop with CD burner, video editing software (I went with off-the-shelf ULead Video Studio 7) plus a battery recharger and a couple of spare batteries and had a decent setup under $2 K to not only shoot but also edit video in the field. I mention all the extra stuff only because it might be a factor when it comes to editing and getting your video web-ready … not sure if you already have a separate editing suite you’ll have access to for this video.
16. Kundalini Activation | October 10th, 2006 at 12:15 pm
Like what you have to say. Your blog makes good since to me.
17. Jessie&hellip | July 20th, 2007 at 1:52 am
Jessie…
Great!…
18. Alan | December 10th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
I have a Canon DC40 that uses a mini dvd to record video. I can’t seem to get the Mpeg2 files it puts out to be converted to Avi or Mov. I am trying to use the video in a Flash (flv.) format but the Flash encoder does not recognize mpeg. Needs to be Avi or WMA or mov. Has anyone got any ideas? thanks Alan
19. MOJO | January 18th, 2008 at 5:58 am
Wow, thanks for the excellent information!
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