Digital Camcorder Questions

(Second time I've written this, so forgive me if I'm blunt )

I'm looking for a DV camera to record stuff to put up on the net - i.e. nothing too flashy (read: expensive)

A couple of questions:
~ What's the main differences between Digital8 and MiniDV in practical terms? MiniDV cameras seem to put at least £100 on the price tag.
~ What's a respectable frame rate for DV cameras to record at?

I'm actually looking (realistically) at the Mustek DV camera which record to SD/MMC cards. Would it suffice my needs? Does anyone have any example videos they've shot on one of these? I belive they record at about 30fps - is this enough for a smooth video?
This one in particular

hey durbs, finally i can help you (or at least try)

ok dv and digita8 or hi8

basic diference is in the tape, teh hi 8 records on an alolouge tape, this means it can be of a lower quality and unless you have the card and pc to do it, can be a pain to transfer over....

dv on eth other hand can be a lil crisper at times, and can store as much info on a smaller tape, allowing teh cams to be smaller at higher end, and is esier to tranfesr as its already a digital format.

However if you are video editing, you need a fiarly fast machine, with a fair chunk of memory up for use!

if not they the frames will drop like a sky diving team jumping from a plane!

as for the mustec one you are looking at, i used to work in ga comp shop were they sell these, (not sure if its this model or the one minus teh flash) but they are more of a gimic than a cam!

they are about 2-3inch long, 2inch deep and an inch wide, and not the best of thing sto be taking pics or vides with!

if you wnat to be making movies best to stick with a cam that is designed to be a vid cam, not one tha does 6jobs! normaly this mean lower quality lens, and not as effective setting or software! and lower quality in all.

best place i can tell you to go look at cams is places like PC world....dont look away keep reading! they often have end of line cams and so on that they do a discounted rate on, i got a dv cam( ill post a link when i get home cos icant rember teh make) for 180notes

ok it was missing ist batteries, but a quick search online, found a shop that sold a bat that would fit went and got them and jobs a gooun, i got a 6-800 pounds worth of cam for about 250 once i have added on eth price of two new battereis!

what more can i say durbs, if you need anymore info pm and ill help ya!

laterdays

Thanks Mech

Ah cool - so stay away from the Mustek - even for internet videos?
My original post (which got lost into the ether when IE crashed) had something along the lines of:
Do I need a high end camera when after the videos been compressed enough to go up on the web - it'll be fairly low quality anyway?

end of the day durbs, best to let you decide on eth mustec, but for me no, i have always found that computer tech that has the words * in one ie like the mustek 7in one! are not always what you want!


ie stills camera are not used to take vids, and the mustek is ore of a still feeling cam to me

as for net vodeos i would still say best to get a real job am cos most cams like the mustek will say 640x480 but hta may be only for 30secs, or at a low fate rate, or low pixel clarity!

anyways

my dv cam is a samsung vp-87di with 0lux lens, means i flick a switch teh screen goes green, two red leds flic on andi can see in eth dark

Ah, ok - you've convinced me

*heads off to eBay*

i can second mech, to say that digital cameras with video function are not the way forward if you want video, even for the web. Digital cameras are generally designed to take high quality photos once every few seconds, where as digital video are mediocre quality 25 times a second. With digital cameras pretending to be video cameras, you end up with a very poor resolution and shoddy features to match, like small zoom, no 'steadycam' etc. Even if you only intend to distribute on the internet at the res that a digital camera can shoot at, generally speaking you'll want to shoot at higher quality then compress it down nicely to avoid it all looking pixelated. Not sure i'd recomend PC World in general thou, whilst they have the odd bargin going (and certainly worth checking out), they had my digital video camera on at almost 200 quid more than i bought it for online.

I suggest saving up and getting a nice MiniDV cam. Ebay is a great place and I got a fairly nice MiniDV cam for like 300 bux. If you go and buy a cheapo cam, your vids will end up crap and youll regret wasting your money... Probably only to buy ANOTHER better quality camera later.

Ooooh quick - does this look like a good one?
HERE

MiniDV, a bit big and clunky but cheap...

looks ok, as an owner of a jvc gdr camera i can confirm that they are alright on a budget. The Optical zoom isn't as good as it could be, it has no dv input (so you can't put editted copies from computer back onto tape, and footage uses a LOT of hd space. If you get it then consider buying a dvdr in the near future, now costing under 50 quid). The quality should be ok, not sure what it means by nightscope, mine's 'nighvision' just does frame stacking, which isn't really what you expect cause you get major blurring with movement.

hope this helps

Muchos thankos Mr Flid sir - Couple more questions:

As it doesn't let you record back on to tape - could you not hook it up to your TV and record it via VCR?

How much space is ALOT of space?

I don't have a firewire port either so would need to invest in one of those - I can't really afford to get a DVDR and Firewire card and Firewire is the essential I guess.

Up until about 10 minutes ago I had a spare firewire card i could have given you, but you can buy them for about 7 quid on ebay.

You can record onto vcr, but you'll loose quality when you do (the whole point of minidv is that all transfer is digital - i.e. lossless).

Size depends on the quality you edit at. Personally i use about 1Gb/20mins of footage. Hence having a 120Gb drive just for video/music.

You, Mr Flid, are a star - thanks

i know this is kinda an old thread... but im lookin to pick peoples brains about digi camcorders....

its something i've been putting of buying for a few years, but now i think the technology is there and mature enough to get something half decent without havin to spend toooo much money

the main thing that i would like to take into concideration is low light recording..... i've doen some reading up on them and depending on how much ££££££ u spend on the features you get

what are peoples experiences here with filming in low light ?? is it much more useful to have exposure and gain settings ?? - cause checking out specs V prices, u gotta start spending more money than i would prefer to

thnx peoples