Friday, May 31, 2013

What is the best video camera?

Q. I'm going to be traveling, and I want to get a video camera to record it all! But what is the best kind to get? I want a camera with the best video quality and that has a lot of memory, but at reasonable price. (Maybe I should wait till after Christmas for the sales?) I greatly appreciate your help!

A. Well memory will likely be the same for them all becuase you'll be shooting to DV tape. Therefore what you should be looking for is the following features

1. A lot of manual control over things like exposure, white balance and color
2. the largest CCD chip you can get for your money (better for shooting in low light / night)

But generally the larger the CCD chip and the more manual control you will have to pay more money.

If you're just looking for cheap the following video camera is pretty good:

http://www.sonystyle.ca/commerce/servlet/ProductDetailDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=10001&productId=1004742&navigationPath=n32080n32081


What would be a starter video camera for my budget?
Q. I'm looking into film-making / movie making and I have a starter budget of $200. I need a video camera for action films that involve the night time, with preferably HD recording, that connects to a PC via USB, and looks a bit professional. Any suggestions.

A. Hi Dean:

I know that $200 sounds like a lot of money to a 14-year-old, but your budget is pretty low for anything professional-looking. And at that price "low-light" sensitivity (for night-time shots) won't be very good.

Hollywood films actually use a lot of artificial light (carefully placed at certain angles) for many night-time shots. Watch several old movies on Turner Classics (especially film-noir B&W movies like "The Maltese Falcon" or "D.O.A.") for night-time lit scenes like this one:
"To Kill a Mockingbird": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FROgIia2cb8
[For more about film-noir lighting, see Mark Apsolon's excellent video tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1gMxT2R9z4#t=31s ]

Here's a good night-time interior from "Bladerunner": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwJEb3vJvWY

And a more-recent one from "The Dark Knight": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c_H45kt1_8

You'll notice that almost all the lighting is from the extreme side(s) or a strong backlight (for a silhouette effect). Sidelighting and backlighting creates strong shadows, which enhance the feeling of "night", even though the subjects' edges are brightly lit.

For an actual camcorder recommendation, try one of Canon's factory-refurbished models, to save you some money and stretch your budget: http://shop.usa.canon.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/subCategory_10051_10051_-1_17252

One of the cheaper Canon Vixia HF-series (HF-R300) or the Canon FS-400 should be in your price range, refurbished or new, if you shop carefully.

hope this helps,
--Dennis C.
 


How can I stop erections from happening during sleep?
Q. I seem to always get erections during sleep. For the purpose of quantification, I set up a video camera to record myself as I slept naked. I watched the playback the day after and it seems that from the time I appeared to fall asleep to when I woke up, I had about four erections during the night. How can I get them to stop?

A. You don't. If you don't get erections during the night, that is abnormal.
Let nature be.





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