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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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 Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 8:22 pm Post subject: Help me buy a video / photo camera |
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| I'm looking for a camera that can take colour recordings for up to 60 minutes but would also work well as a regular photo camera. What mid-range models would be good to consider at the moment? |
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crossmr
Joined: 22 Nov 2008
Location: Hwayangdong, Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 1:05 am Post subject: |
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What kind of quality are you looking for?
Do you need/want high zoom?
What is your primary shooting scenario? outside with sun or inside at night?
Right now I'd avoid buying anything panasonic new for sure. I believe it was them that are now applying a firmware to their camera that allows them to only run on panasonic "genuine" batteries. You wouldn't be able to use third party batteries in them at all. |
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hanguker
Joined: 16 Mar 2005
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 6:44 pm Post subject: |
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| crossmr wrote: |
| I believe it was them that are now applying a firmware to their camera that allows them to only run on panasonic "genuine" batteries. You wouldn't be able to use third party batteries in them at all. |
LOL. That's going to go over really well.  |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 6:52 pm Post subject: |
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| crossmr wrote: |
What kind of quality are you looking for?
Do you need/want high zoom?
What is your primary shooting scenario? outside with sun or inside at night?
Right now I'd avoid buying anything panasonic new for sure. I believe it was them that are now applying a firmware to their camera that allows them to only run on panasonic "genuine" batteries. You wouldn't be able to use third party batteries in them at all. |
Thanks. I'm not looking for super-high quality. I also don't need a super-high zoom, though I wouldn't mind it if it's not too expensive. I'd like to use it for both indoor and outdoor use - taking photos and videos of travel, having fun at the pub, class lessons that I could use for demonstrations, as well as just casual pics with friends. |
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crossmr
Joined: 22 Nov 2008
Location: Hwayangdong, Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 8:21 pm Post subject: |
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| hanguker wrote: |
LOL. That's going to go over really well. |
Like a ton of bricks. People who already own panasonic can not upgrade, but new cameras will come with the firmware.
| Quote: |
| Thanks. I'm not looking for super-high quality. I also don't need a super-high zoom, though I wouldn't mind it if it's not too expensive. I'd like to use it for both indoor and outdoor use - taking photos and videos of travel, having fun at the pub, class lessons that I could use for demonstrations, as well as just casual pics with friends. |
Well here is the thing with demonstrations, lessons, etc.
Most of the dual use cameras don't have great mics. They're built in and they're not made for making high quality stuff. Now in a controlled quiet room with good echo control and no background noise they'll probably be okay for that kind of stuff if you're speaking clearly. If you have any other situation where you want to do serious sound recording, you could run into trouble, I wouldn't try to record a lesson out on a seoul street. Think about a lot of youtube videos where you see a group of people talking into a computer mic or something like that and you'll get similar results. Its going to sound a little hollow unless you're really careful with it.
Now on vacation or out at the pub, that kind of stuff just doesn't really matter that much and if you have a little sound distortion or too much background noise you'll live with it.
I'm going to throw up some samples of the camera I have for sale, which I think could meet your needs and is rather inexpensive. I don't believe I edited any of these other than a resize.
The first pair shows the zoom ability:
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/6831/image1gjc.jpg
http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/6043/image2vvx.jpg
It has a 10x optical zoom. This is more than you'll get from most Point and Shoot cameras. the 3x optical zoom is standard with some form of digital zoom, but digital zoom is garbage never use it. Its like zooming in on your computer.
This is a low-light shot at a temple in Korea. These inset areas are actually kind of dark. I didn't use a tripod or flash for this picture but I had to hold it really still.
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/5393/1003488r.jpg
This is rain on a sidewalk at night, 22 floors up:
http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/1867/image5rs.jpg
For vacation shots, landscape style stuff, it works well too:
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/9854/1002510u.jpg
and for close-up stuff it does a nice job:
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/3140/1002677d.jpg
Here is another pair of shots show the effect of zoom, even in lower light, sunset time.
http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/3452/1002612q.jpg
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/5792/1002613d.jpg
Prior to this I had a 3x and I'd never go back. The 10x makes a huge difference to the types of photos you can get, of course it also allows you to film videos from a little further away, but you'll want to put the camera on a tripod. I'm going to include a couple rapidshare links with videos to show the video quality.
First video is from 22 floors up of a parade.
http://rapidshare.com/files/250538570/100_1907.MOV.html
the second video is a bonfire at night
http://rapidshare.com/files/250539809/100_2630.MOV.html
Unfortunately I don't have any videos of people talking that I can share.
Its going for 150,000W takes an SD card (1 GB card will get you like 600ish photos) and a pair of AA. Model is a kodak z740, I only replaced it because I got a DSLR.
Now if you want something new, I might recommend anything with at least a 10x optical and make sure it has audio with the video. You will find the odd camera that takes video but no audio. I don't know why. I remember when I was looking for this one probably about half of the ones I looked up didn't do audio.
For current models, I might recommend the Sony DSC-HX1 if money was no issue. But I noticed on naver its around 700,000W.
It actually sports a 20x zoom. They call these "bridge" cameras. They're shaped like an SLR, but the lens is fixed.
For a lower price the Sony DSC-H10 is around 390,000W
it has a 10x zoom
The Olympus SP-560UZ is around 405,000W listed on naver.
between the two of them the olympus got slightly better reviews, it features an 18x zoom. However the mic sounds terrible compared to the sony one.
As much as I'd like you to buy my camera, if 400,000 is in your price range, the Sony is a good deal, if you do want cheaper mine is there. The newer ones have a higher megapixel of course, but the value of that is up to you.
You can get some really full indepth reviews of these cameras over at dpreview.com |
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Robot_Teacher
Joined: 18 Feb 2009
Location: Robotting Around the World
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| Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 9:03 pm Post subject: |
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That Sony HX1 is the hot camera this year that seems almost as good as SLR, but doesn't have all the controls and removable lenses. I watched some travel videos tourists recently shot with their new HX1 and am impressed. It's HD with stereo sound and looks very professional enough to produce high quality amature TV shows such as if you're an aspiring travel writer or nature documentaryist.
The downer... It costs $100 US more in Korea than in America as of July 1st. It's not a Korean camera so the import tax is like 20%. |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 5:41 pm Post subject: |
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| crossmr wrote: |
| hanguker wrote: |
LOL. That's going to go over really well. |
Like a ton of bricks. People who already own panasonic can not upgrade, but new cameras will come with the firmware.
| Quote: |
| Thanks. I'm not looking for super-high quality. I also don't need a super-high zoom, though I wouldn't mind it if it's not too expensive. I'd like to use it for both indoor and outdoor use - taking photos and videos of travel, having fun at the pub, class lessons that I could use for demonstrations, as well as just casual pics with friends. |
Well here is the thing with demonstrations, lessons, etc.
Most of the dual use cameras don't have great mics. They're built in and they're not made for making high quality stuff. Now in a controlled quiet room with good echo control and no background noise they'll probably be okay for that kind of stuff if you're speaking clearly. If you have any other situation where you want to do serious sound recording, you could run into trouble, I wouldn't try to record a lesson out on a seoul street. Think about a lot of youtube videos where you see a group of people talking into a computer mic or something like that and you'll get similar results. Its going to sound a little hollow unless you're really careful with it.
Now on vacation or out at the pub, that kind of stuff just doesn't really matter that much and if you have a little sound distortion or too much background noise you'll live with it.
I'm going to throw up some samples of the camera I have for sale, which I think could meet your needs and is rather inexpensive. I don't believe I edited any of these other than a resize.
The first pair shows the zoom ability:
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/6831/image1gjc.jpg
http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/6043/image2vvx.jpg
It has a 10x optical zoom. This is more than you'll get from most Point and Shoot cameras. the 3x optical zoom is standard with some form of digital zoom, but digital zoom is garbage never use it. Its like zooming in on your computer.
This is a low-light shot at a temple in Korea. These inset areas are actually kind of dark. I didn't use a tripod or flash for this picture but I had to hold it really still.
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/5393/1003488r.jpg
This is rain on a sidewalk at night, 22 floors up:
http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/1867/image5rs.jpg
For vacation shots, landscape style stuff, it works well too:
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/9854/1002510u.jpg
and for close-up stuff it does a nice job:
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/3140/1002677d.jpg
Here is another pair of shots show the effect of zoom, even in lower light, sunset time.
http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/3452/1002612q.jpg
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/5792/1002613d.jpg
Prior to this I had a 3x and I'd never go back. The 10x makes a huge difference to the types of photos you can get, of course it also allows you to film videos from a little further away, but you'll want to put the camera on a tripod. I'm going to include a couple rapidshare links with videos to show the video quality.
First video is from 22 floors up of a parade.
http://rapidshare.com/files/250538570/100_1907.MOV.html
the second video is a bonfire at night
http://rapidshare.com/files/250539809/100_2630.MOV.html
Unfortunately I don't have any videos of people talking that I can share.
Its going for 150,000W takes an SD card (1 GB card will get you like 600ish photos) and a pair of AA. Model is a kodak z740, I only replaced it because I got a DSLR.
Now if you want something new, I might recommend anything with at least a 10x optical and make sure it has audio with the video. You will find the odd camera that takes video but no audio. I don't know why. I remember when I was looking for this one probably about half of the ones I looked up didn't do audio.
For current models, I might recommend the Sony DSC-HX1 if money was no issue. But I noticed on naver its around 700,000W.
It actually sports a 20x zoom. They call these "bridge" cameras. They're shaped like an SLR, but the lens is fixed.
For a lower price the Sony DSC-H10 is around 390,000W
it has a 10x zoom
The Olympus SP-560UZ is around 405,000W listed on naver.
between the two of them the olympus got slightly better reviews, it features an 18x zoom. However the mic sounds terrible compared to the sony one.
As much as I'd like you to buy my camera, if 400,000 is in your price range, the Sony is a good deal, if you do want cheaper mine is there. The newer ones have a higher megapixel of course, but the value of that is up to you.
You can get some really full indepth reviews of these cameras over at dpreview.com |
Wow - thanks so much for your advice and help. If I lived nearer to Seoul I'd probably take you up on your offer, but I don't think I'll be going up there before I leave for Canada this summer. Thanks, though - I think I'll check out the cheaper Sony. |
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brainfreeze
Joined: 04 Jul 2009
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| Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2009 2:39 am Post subject: |
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I've tried the Sony's as well and ended up getting the DSC H10 too. The picture quality is amazing for a point and shoot, and the flash is very powerful which is useful for low light situations.
Don't bother getting a pocket camera, they are more convenient but picture quality is not as good as the DSC H10. |
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