SpankedYA!

Thanks for the responses.

baldur

I bought a 10 pack of JVC mini-DV tapes on ebay and my camera doesn't like them. They tend to tangle up.
Now I only buy Sony tapes from power city and haven't had a singlle one become tangled inside the camera.

juli0_bustamante

i dont have that problem.. hmmm thats odd.

c_piddy

one thing you shouldn't cheep out on is tapes!!!!!!

maxwell and jvc are ----!

always get fuji or sony. but fuji is better...

and here is why.... fuji uses the best meterials and the magnetic coding doesn't flake off the sides of the tape..

if you use any of the shitty brands, then you are essentialy pouring sand into your camera... not to mention they are more suseptible to drop outs, or even ruining your heads in the camera...

trust me. fuji is the way to go..... oh and don't buy canon, unless you are willing to shill out alot on a xl1 or gl1 gl2. because the cheep canon dv cameras are known to break, after the warrenty is threw....

go sony for great picture quality and the for the best preformance in low light conditions. Usualy family camera moments happen with the shittiest lighting conditions, so it should be something to think about.

find something with white ballance. and don't look at digital zoom.
also try not to jump on the band wagon with the digital photos built into the camera, they are gay, and super low rez.

best camera for the buck is the dsr trv 900.... but at 2000 bucks it's a bit pricy, but has 3ccd's... which means, the image that is entering the camera is split into three channels. red blue and green, and there is a chip for each colour. it's suposed to be the best colour reproduction. meh....

so look for optical zoom, fire wire, low light preformance, mini dv, lithium batteries. you should be set... oh and don't get that shitty dvd cam bullshit.... that has the worst video compression technology ever!

can you tell i am a film student? also i do corporate videos on the side, and wedding vids, i know what i am talking about.....

chris

Turbopit

Chris is there a camera you like under $1000?

thanks for the info.
Mike


http://www.four-banger.net/8.html

shadetree

Chris has good advice. But I'm pretty sure they don't make the TRV900 anymore. The TRV950 was it's replacement. And I think that's been replaced by the new cheapie HD camera. I'm pretty sure they only have the $3k VX2100 for 3chip DV cameras.
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTE...s&Dept=cameras

If you want a ******* camera, look on ebay and craigslist for TRV900 or 950. Going price for a used one in good condition is $700-1000. It will DESTROY any new camera you buy under $1k.

-3 chip, and larger chips. Better resolution.
-adjustable white balance and zebra stripes. Allows you to manually setup exposure, for better colors and contrast. The automatic feature just sucks in some conditions.
-larger lens
-nice viewfinder and flip out screen. Some of the fancy 3chips, don't have the flip out screen, cuz serious filmers only use the viewfinder.

As far as new cameras go, the newer cheap sony cameras seem really geared towards the amateur, that doesn't really care about how to manipulate their image. People that just want to pull a little thing out of their pocket, point it, and push a button. The cheaper HC series, doesn't even have a color viewfinder. It has a pinner 1/6" CCD.

c_piddy

don't forget my camera...... dsr pdx10 basicaly the trv950 with a xlr break out box on top.....

only gayness is the trv900 used to have the exposer in f-stops. now it's just a plus and minus bar....

chris