Camera for SMA

[Grendels]

I bought a Sony HDR-CX150 about 4 months ago. Before that I had one of the pocket cams. (It was a 720P pocket cam, but it just didn't do that good of a job. But if anyone wants a pocket cam I will sell it really cheap!! Creative Vado, just message me.) It does not have a hard drive, but has 16G of internal memory allowing for about an hour and a half of recording, and it does have a memory slot for more storage. I don't know if I will ever get that extra memory card. The battery won't last through more than an hour or two of video, so I don't see the point. It has performed quite well for me, and is rather small. I think I paid $450 for it when I bought it. (It was on sale.)

I will answer any questions anyone might have about the camera, just ask.

Did you record your latest shows with it?

Yes, I have been using the Sony for my Youtube vids. Playback on my computer is better than what I see on youtube. (Youtube compresses the videos, and some of them are in flash video, my editing software converts it for me.)

I don't have the best lighting in the room I record most of those videos in. A desk lamp and two 9 watt LED flood lights. I am very happy with the camera.

Scott let us know what Cannon tells you. I will throw something into the kitty once you hear back from them.

 

[DreamKnight]

Yes, I have been using the Sony for my Youtube vids. Playback on my computer is better than what I see on youtube. (Youtube compresses the videos, and some of them are in flash video, my editing software converts it for me.)

Scott let us know what Cannon tells you. I will throw something into the kitty once you hear back from them.

OK cool. Yeh YT does weird compression.

 

[DreamKnight]

But wow, thanks for thinking about me like this. I appreciate the sentiment. I really need better lighting too.

Lightning is easy. Just get to shop lightning with 2 100w daylight bulbs. If you're talking over what you have set up now, have on shining onto the work area out of cam and one lit up behind the camera pointing upwards a bit to flood the area around you. If you build up a diffuser (I need to do that for myself) then have the diffuser (the umbrella or reflected board pointed towards you).

 

[Grendels]

I would avoid CF light bulbs, they put off funny colors, and can really mess with the white balance in your camera......

 

[Junkie]

CF being cool fluorescent?

 

[DreamKnight]

CF being cool fluorescent?

CF being Compact Florescent.

I never had a problem with daylight CF light bulbs. Only when they start getting old will they start to go amber. But you can start seeing that easily.

Though if you have the money, get Halogens lights. It's hot though AND you will need a deflector.

 

[Grendels]

I agree Halogens, or some of the newer LED spot lights would work well. But, unless you get the LED's from China, they will cost you a fortune.

Halogens come close to the same spectrum as sunlight, some people use them to grow plants by, anyhow that is what my Horticulture teacher told me years ago.

 

[DreamKnight]

I agree Halogens, or some of the newer LED spot lights would work well. But, unless you get the LED's from China, they will cost you a fortune.

Halogens come close to the same spectrum as sunlight, some people use them to grow plants by, anyhow that is what my Horticulture teacher told me years ago.

Or use them for fishy tanks. They are very hot though and I'm talking about if you get a shop halogen, it'll heat up your bench area pretty quick. CF is cooler and cheaper though and again, I don't have much problem with them going amber until after a couple of years use but I think that's dependent on the brand.

 

[sunsanvil]

Record at least 1280x720 HD

Speaking from my experience as a journalist on the CE side of things, I would advise looking at 1080 line only, or saving up for it if you cant find a good one in you price band right now. Even in terms of streaming video 720 is going to feel like 360 very soon. One can easily argue that "its not necessary" or "cant tell the difference on a 23" monitor", but that's not the point. Even if you publish at a lower resolution you always get a better product starting with more and decimating down. On the flip side almost all monitors sold now down to 21.5" (and some even smaller) are 1080 line and scaling anything else up to that just adds artifacts.

 

[sunsanvil]

I never had a problem with daylight CF light bulbs. Only when they start getting old will they start to go amber. But you can start seeing that easily.

Although even the cheapest camera will white-point compensate, if you can start with lights which are the right color, so much the better. Unfortunately what is sold today as "daylight"...isn't. Usually that term is used on bulbs with a color temp of 6500. Those are perfect for bias lighting a calibrated Home Theater (which use D65 as the white target) but in photography and film the ideal is true daylight which is 5000-5500k. A little harder to find CF bulbs which are, and when you do they are called all sorts of arbitrary names unfortunately. Not a big deal but just thought I'd share...

 

[ministuff]

Just wanted to say I'm in. Just donated a blistering sum of 15$

Cheers,
Markus

 

[Junkie]

Thank you Markus.

 

[Fett2303]

Great Job everyone!! Please keep up the donations for the camera for SMA. no amount is to small. Even is its just a dollar or two. The site will benefit and so will we all (along with a little less fustration by Scott). Scott could you let us all know anything you pick out and a goal we can try to reach to get to the purchase of the cam for the shows. Maybe that would help out with the donations if we can reach a marker for ya.

 

[DreamKnight]

OK quick pm with Scott. Donations are at
$55 dollars right now.

He's still had to research camera's himself and see which would work better for him but let's see about hitting a goal of $500.

 

[Quaralane]

Mine wasn't much, but I've put some into the kitty

 

[Junkie]

Thank you Q - very appreciated. Don't belittle yourself dude, that is great man, thank you.

I really appreciate this guys - BIG TIME.

I will update the total every so often. This way no single donation will be obvious - just cuz it's not cool to kiss and tell - :-*

 

[Dano1945]

Just dropped $25 in the donation box. We'll get to the goal. It's payday weekend and I am rubbing my Blarney stone for good luck.

 

[Junkie]

Thanks Dano. Very appreciated.

 

[DreamKnight]

Hey Scott, if you ever hook up with Cannon, see if you can land a Canon 5D Mark II. I just finished filming with one of the shorts my and my friend is producing and it's top notch. It's an SLR camera cost $2000 without lenses but it's freaking awesome and with the right lenses, you can record film quality stuff. It's what a lot of the studios are using for movies now. It's expensive, but if you work something out with Canon, see if you can get that.

I'm thinking of putting off my new computer and getting the camera instead. Gonna cost me way more but it's a crazy camera. It's the lenses that's gonna kill me. lol

 

[sunsanvil]

Yea the 5D, 7D are gaining ground as semi-pro dual purpose still/video pieces. They apparently shoot pretty good 1080line video, albeit at a max 24fps (no over-cranking for slo-mo shots). The big limitation I ran into on a recent project though was the 12 minute limit: They will only capture 12 minute at a time. Yea you can sit there and start a new one right away but when shooting "live" you stand a chance of having a cut where you dont want one (think: a wedding right in the middle of the vows. LOL). Not really an issue for 10 minute finished product assembled from several clips (ie YouTube), but just something to be aware of before someone drops big $$$ on one.