{"id":13,"date":"2005-08-04T11:47:23","date_gmt":"2005-08-04T11:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mdshivers.com\/wp\/2005\/08\/04\/buying-a-mid-range-dv-camera\/"},"modified":"2005-08-04T11:47:23","modified_gmt":"2005-08-04T11:47:23","slug":"buying-a-mid-range-dv-camera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mdshivers.com\/blog\/?p=13","title":{"rendered":"Buying a mid-range DV camera"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wrote this to a friend the other day- thought it might be helpful for others:::::
\nHere is a quick suggestions. Depending
\non your price range and quality you want there are
\nthree levels.
\n1. Prosummer- $2000.00 and up
\n2.mid line $600-$1,500
\n3. cheaper but works. $220
\nYou should stick with the “Mini DV” format for tape.
\nThis is the digital standard and is much better than
\nHi 8 or Digtial hi8. You transfer the info to the mac
\nvia firewire on mini dv cameras. The software on the
\ncomputer will control the camera to tell it to play,
\npause, etc.
\nI would recommend Canon on the top of the list. I have
\nbeen extremly pleased with them and the amount of
\ncraftmenship that goes into their camera’s.
\nSony, Panisonic and JVC are also great brands.
\nEach camera will have its own “look”. They use Charged
\nCouple Devies (CDD’s) to convert light into Red,
\nGreen, Blue. The better the chip and more chips you
\nhave the more expensive the camera is.
\nMost mid and lower cameras have 1 CCD. That means one
\nchip converting Red, Green, Blue. Prosummer’s have 3
\nchips dedicated to each color. Hence the color and
\ncontrast will be much richer on 3ccd’s cameras.
\nAs for Canon, I prefer their camera, it has an
\noverall “warmer” tone to the images. Its hard to
\ndiscribe- but the images are soft, rich but also very
\ndetailed.
\n1. Hi end for you- would be the Canon GL2. I bought
\nthis camera in 2002 and its is very trusty. Also
\nimages, prosumer- great quality, took it all around
\neurope- i film weddings with it etc. 785mm (20x
\noptical) zoom, 3ccd, light and small. It has gone
\ndown some – probably find it for around $2,000- 2,200.
\nwith maybe some rebates.
\nps. any digtal zoom sucks. don’t use it. look only for
\noptical.
\n2. There are several choices with them. The Optura XI
\nor the new Optura 600 look really great. Both have
\ngreat zoom’s (10x optical) and are small and compact.
\nthe Optura 600 is brand spanken new and it has a lot
\nof cool features. it is a hybrid, so it can also take
\n4.0 megapixel still images. (thats cool). It also has
\ntrue “widescreen” mode. so that it shoots in 16:9 (the
\nshape of the screen like movies theater and HD) and
\nthat footage will play letterboxed on a regular TV
\n(4:3). So that is kinda the new cool feature to shoot
\nlike that. Also most upper end canon’s come with Image
\nStabilzer- which takes the shakyness. It really works
\ntoo! Crap just read this camera is available in
\nseptember. so i don’t what you think about waiting. If
\nnot,the Optura Xi looks like a great one too. So
\nreally look into that one too.
\nWhat you want to look at is this.
\n1. How many CCd’s?
\n2. What is the effective pixel’s on the one or 3
\nccd’s? like 350,000 blah blah. the higher the better.
\n3. What is the Optical Zoom.
\n4. the size- what to you want to carry around?
\n5. What is the cost? What are you going to use the
\ncamera for? You always pay for what you get.
\nCanon’s DV site
\nhttp:\/\/consumer.usa.canon.com<\/a>
\nbe sure to copy\/paste entire link
\nOther costs involved with buying a camera.
\n1. You want to get a UV filter for the lense. This
\nhelps protect glare, uv rays, but most importantly
\nprotects the camera lense from scratches etc. Its the
\nbiggest life saver. around $15-$20 bucks.
\n2. Tripod- pick a good one up that is light and
\ncompact for about $40.
\n3. Extra batteries. (they can die so quick and you
\nwill probably want a back up) $50-$100 depending on
\nthe size.
\n4. Camera Case-gotta have it to hold all your goodies.
\naround $20-80.
\n5. Mini DV tapes. buying online you can get it for
\nabout $3bucks a pop (i think.)
\n6. Once you get rolling, probably want to look into an
\nexternal harddrive for all your video clips. Video can
\nget pretty big. “Lacie” is a good brand. Either USB2
\nor firewire. ($100-$250) depending on size.
\n7. Possibly upgrading your software to Final Cut
\nExpress. check out apple’s website on that. I movie is
\ngreat – this just gets more advanced.
\nWhere to buy?
\nGo to your local stores to check it out see if you
\nlike it. But don’t buy it there. Go to B&H Photo
\nVideo’s website. Company based out of New York- Best
\ndeals in states. I buy all of my equipment from them
\nand its great. No hassle- either order online or by
\nphone. I spent a lot here an never had a problem. No
\ntax and that will save you a lot- and usually lower
\nthan other places.
\nhttp:\/\/www.bhphotovideo.com\/<\/a>
\nIf you want local place to get all gear go to Showcase
\nVideo and Photo
\non the corner of Cheisbrige and La Vista (right down
\nthe street from my place.)
\nhttp:\/\/www.showcaseinc.com\/site\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wrote this to a friend the other day- thought it might be helpful for others::::: Here is a quick suggestions. Depending on your price range and quality you want there are three levels. 1. Prosummer- $2000.00 and up 2.mid line $600-$1,500 3. cheaper but works. $220 You should stick with the “Mini DV” format […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mdshivers.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mdshivers.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mdshivers.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mdshivers.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mdshivers.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/mdshivers.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mdshivers.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mdshivers.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mdshivers.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}