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Home: Video University Forums: Teaching Video Production:
Best video camera

X-Mark_Blackbourn
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Jul 17, 2003, 6:26 PM

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Best video camera	Can't Post

I am looking for the best available video camera to film high school football games. Our budget is about $1000.00 and I can find nothing. Can anyone offer suggestions?

X-Doug_Graham
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Jul 18, 2003, 2:58 PM

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Re: Best video camera	Can't Post

: I am looking for the best available video camera to film high school football games. Our budget is about $1000.00 and I can find nothing. Can anyone offer suggestions?
Get a bigger budget!
Seriously, $1,000 won't buy you much in the way of a camera. You really want to budget about two to six times that, if you can. In descending order of suitability, here are my suggestions. All of them will need a good tripod for steady long shots.
1. JVC GY-DV5000, preferably with a Canon or Fujinon 19X or 20X lens.
2. JVC GY-DV500, same comment on the lens.
3. Canon XL1s
4. Canon XL1, used
5. Sony VX-2000 (I prefer this to the used XL1, but the Canons have a standard 16X lens, and the Sony is only 12X. You can overcome this with a telephoto adapter for the Sony).
After this, we take a big downward step, to arrive at:
6. Any of the Sony or Canon one-CCD DV or Digital 8 consumer camcorders. Your primary consideration is finding one with a long OPTICAL zoom (not digital or electronic zoom), and image stabilization (again, optical rather than electronic is preferable).
Regards,
Doug Graham

X-Janet_Kerby
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Jul 22, 2003, 5:25 PM

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Re: Best video camera [In reply to]	Can't Post

I'm curious about Doug's reason for not including the Canon GL2 in the list. It has a 20x zoom. Also, if your purpose is to tape the games for coaches' analysis and exchange and making highlight tapes for players, you need to remember that the mini-DV format will require using the camera or an appropriate deck for playback. The tape cannot be adapted like a VHS-C for regular vhs vcr's. You can dub from the camera to a vhs tape, however, using the camera for playback will be inconvenient and shorten the life of your camera. Tapes are more expensive and recording time is shorter, so these are cost factors to consider as well.
Another point: (perhaps Doug or someone else will either confirm or correct this) I'm told the mini-DV tapes have a much shorter life than vhs or s-vhs...i.e. recording over on same tape several times is not recommended and perhaps even repeated play-backs will start to wear on the tape.
Good luck.
Janet

X-Doug_Graham
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Jul 24, 2003, 3:04 PM

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Re: Best video camera [In reply to]	Can't Post

: I'm curious about Doug's reason for not including the Canon GL2 in the list. It has a 20x zoom.
'Cause I forgot! Is that 20X optical zoom, or does that include a digital zoom range as well?
MiniDV tapes do have a shorter physical life than the VHS format, due to the much smaller tape size. However, it should stand up to ten passes or so with no problems, and fresh tape is cheap. On the other hand, since the format is digital, perfect copies can be made...so long-term archiving prospects are better than with the analog formats.
Regards,
Doug Graham