How to ask a Sale Person for the Correct Camera

Tony_Montana · Post by **Tony_Montana** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 7:53 am

Alright, First of all it's my first time posting here so Hi! ;P

My budget is $1000 canadian, I'm just curious because i'm new with this camcorder stuff how would i approach a sales person and tell him what i want in my camcorder for a short film..so he won't scam my a** and make me get something thats not right?

[Edited on 15-10-2003 by Tony_Montana]

foxwood · Post by **foxwood** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 12:26 pm

do reserch before hand, and knid of know what you want, know what the fetures do, avoid digital zoom, and the like. OH ya and get a Sony.

El Brenty · Post by **El Brenty** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 1:11 pm

That's right, look up the specs of cameras in your budget range beforehand, then pretend you don't know anything about the camera, and see how they're about to rip you off and mis-inform you! Then you can turn around and give it back to them for that!

Tony_Montana · Post by **Tony_Montana** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 7:42 pm

but where do i start i don't know anything..what camcorder should i start my research with?

foxwood · Post by **foxwood** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 8:15 pm

Well pick a brand, say Sony, go to their web site, and look at all their cams, lets say your looking from MiniDV, which I would sugest.
You then narrow it down to a few modles in your age ragne, then look up what each of the specks means, and go to google and look up both prices and reviews of the cams. Read as much as possable.
Do this for both brands. When you have it narrowed down to about two go to the store, and hold both of them, because that can somtimes be the desiding factor.
Also if you have any ideas ask us. But most anything from Sony or Cannon is going to be really good.

Raptor · Post by **Raptor** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 8:19 pm

A couple of features you are going to probably want.....
External Mic Jack - need it for good sound, most internal mics suck....
Manual Focus/Exposure/White balance/ iris - The auto feature is great for shooting the kid's, birthday parties etc, but you want to be able to control as much as possible when getting creative

Stuff to avoid -
Built in video lights... most are too weak to have any use beyound about 2 feet, and add to the price....

Carnage7p · Post by **Carnage7p** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 12:20 am

yes, maximum optical zoom is what you want. if it has an LCD screen make sure it's no bigger than 2.5 inches. anything bigger than that will just eat your battery. i would strongly suggest mini dv. night shot can come in handy too.

El Brenty · Post by **El Brenty** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 10:27 am

Start off with a budget, post it here, then BrownCowStudios should be able to recommend a few makes.

TimXL1 · Post by **TimXL1** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 7:30 pm

For $1000 canadian, the Canon Elura 50 looks good. I haven't personally used it, but I'm very happy with my Canon, and this cam has a lot of must-have features for any amateur film-maker: 3CCDs, DV In/Out, full manual controls, and a plethora of other features.

Once again, I don't have any personal experience of this cam, but it does look like good value for money, so perhaps a place to start (ie, go into a showroom and play with one):

Here's a good price

Tony_Montana · Post by **Tony_Montana** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 8:28 pm

Thanks alot for the replies guys. Keep'em coming. I'll take a look at Canon Elura 50 today.

Carnage7p · Post by **Carnage7p** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 11:20 pm

canon elura 50 doesn't look bad but it only has 10x optical zoom. that's not bad but usually hope for at least 12x. my cam for example has 16x optical. other than that it looks like a good buy but look around a little more first.

Tony_Montana · Post by **Tony_Montana** » Sun Nov 09, 2003 10:08 pm

What do you guys think of the the canon Optura 20?

Tony_Montana · Post by **Tony_Montana** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 7:55 am

anyone?

TimXL1 · Post by **TimXL1** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 2:46 pm

Sorry Tony, I haven't used one... one thing that sticks out to me is that the Elura 50 is a 3CCD camera and the Optura 20 is a 1CCD camera. The Elura has a separate CCD for Red, Green and Blue, which gives better colour depth in your picture. This may or not be important to you depending on the sort of stuff you intend to shoot.

Best thing to do is try both cameras before you buy, and see which one you click with

iamnothing · Post by **iamnothing** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 5:03 pm

Go for the 50. It's only a 100 more and the 3CCD's are well worth that in terms of quality.

[edit]
Of course, that's after using both, but I prefer to have the highest quality possible on my budget because it's easier to adjust down than it is to fake adjusting up in terms of quality.

[Edited on 18-11-2003 by iamnothing]

Reiji · Post by **Reiji** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 3:55 pm

Compared to non-DV cameras, DV cams have low digital zooms.. my Samsung 8mm (made 2001) has 22x optical...

Anyways, as for camera advice, Canon do some big 'proper' looking black cameras, and Sony do good handheld Mini-DVs.

film fanatic · Post by **film fanatic** » Sat Nov 29, 2003 4:56 am

DV cams have low digital zooms?!

mine is 700x digital zoom!

Epsilon · Post by **Epsilon** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 7:22 am

I would research it and try to find a store that has them on display to try them out. Go for cameras that have higher quality picture, resolution, and lenses. Ignore the fancy add-ons that can be added later in editing. And especially don't get tricked into thinking a camcorder is better because it Looks fancier, you may be surprised.

Don't think because the digital zoom is higher, your camera is necessarily better. I Hate digital zoom. You can do that anytime you want in editing. You gain nothing by using digital zoom, you just lose your picture quality. Optical zoom should always be considered over digital zoom.

But as they say: It isn't your camera quality that counts, it is the quality of movie...

I object. Lol

Tony_Montana · Post by **Tony_Montana** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 2:07 pm

Damn...the decision is so hard for me because in reality i have no clue on what a good camcorder is--if you guys dont mind can you simplifiy to me what the + and - are of both the Elura 50 and the Optura 20