 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi,
I'm looking to get a camcorder to film skiing but am a complete newcomer to the camcorder market. I was wondering if anyone has any advice they can share about which format and specific models I should take a look at, or which I should definately avoid!
Looking to spend up to about £350, and needs to be mac compatible.
Thanks for any help.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Can't help on current models etc however...
make sure you get a camcorder with a viewfinder as there are quite a few about at the mo' with no viewfinder and the screens are almost invisible in snowy environments...
As to Mac compatibility I have hooked various camcorders up to my Macbook Pro via firewire - never had any issues..
Hope that helps..
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Get one with image stabilisation if you intend filming whilst skiing to eliminate jerkiness when viewing later. Most Sony cameras seem to have this facility.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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jimp_85, if you are going to edit your video with a Mac I'd go with a miniDV camcorder (these are tape based, rather than hard disc). Any of the model with a firewire port from the well-known brands is likely to be compatible with a Mac, so perhaps choose one on price and size. A good site for independent reviews of camcorders is this one. I use an old Sony camcorder (PC109) which seems to work well.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I was in the same position at the start of this year, in the end I got a Sony HDR HC3E. This is mini DV tape.
The main reason was, after much research, that mini dv is still the professionals choice and is a damn site easier to edit on a PC or Mac.
I went for HD as I have HD television and intend to buy a blue ray DVD at some point in the near future.
Editing in HD is demanding on a PC to say the least, but its a lot easier with mini dv tape as you dont have to have a massive amount of hard drive storage, you can edit the final version back on to tape if you want.
As a guide if you choose to stay with your existing apple cack, sorry Mac  and edit in normals dv mode you may find things a bit slow on the processing speed, unless you have one of the latest Macs, this is because the Macs were good for graphics applications but pretty crap for any form of video  .
If you decide on going down the HD route then you will need to have at least 3-4gb ram and change the graphics card to one that has its own processor to help with the main 'puter processor when its running flat out at rendering your footage.
I upgraded my pc, which is a pentium 4 3.2ghz , so that it now has 4gb ram plus a new ATI radeon sapphire HD graphics processor and also stuck in another 200gb hard drive purely for output and working, that way the main hard drive is simply running the programme and all the finished work is output on to a seperate drive, this makes for very fast editing, otherwise you end up with the hard drive accessing various parts of its disk to work on the files as well as try to save the finished work on the same disk.
In HD editing its definately better with 2 hard drives, whether you choose to set them up in RAID mode is up to you.
Bit long winded I know but its just what my time consuming research found out.
If you get a hard drive camera, ie no tape, then its better to get the camera with best quality image and also the biggest hard drive you can afford, because once its full you need to empty the files on to your computer and that might not be possible when you are on holiday.
Video Tape is still used as the main format for Film and Television so it must be still worth using. Get Mini DV I dont think you can go wrong.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I was advised to get a hard drive cam pn the basis that theres less moving parts to get damaged if you take a tumble with it, apparently they're a bit more rugged . . . i havent tested that theory though lol
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They're all Mac compatible, so no worries there. What Mac have you got?
Sony consumer camcorders have always been a safe bet, but perhaps not the cheapest option. I still use MiniDV format, which is reliable and provides high quality uncompressed footage. Import via Firewire to a Mac is a doddle. After importing you can either re-use the tapes or keep them as a source back-up (which is what I do). Hard disk camcorders are another option, but there is more compression and I'm not convinced about the long term durability of a portable hard disk. There are some solid state drives around too, but generally a lot more expensive. Although I haven't looked at them for over a year, so they may be cheaper now.
I also use a helmet cam, so AV in and LANC ports were a necessity for me. Not many current consumer camcorders still have these ports, so that's something to consider if you want the option of a helmet cam.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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They're all Mac compatible, so no worries there. What Mac have you got?
Sony consumer camcorders have always been a safe bet, but perhaps not the cheapest option. I still use MiniDV format, which is reliable and provides high quality uncompressed footage. Import via Firewire to a Mac is a doddle. After importing you can either re-use the tapes or keep them as a source back-up (which is what I do). Hard disk camcorders are another option, but there is more compression and I'm not convinced about the long term durability of a portable hard disk. There are some solid state drives around too, but generally a lot more expensive. Although I haven't looked at them for over a year, so they may be cheaper now.
I also use a helmet cam, so AV in and LANC ports were a necessity for me. Not many current consumer camcorders still have these ports, so that's something to consider if you want the option of a helmet cam.
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They're all Mac compatible, so no worries there. What Mac have you got?
Sony consumer camcorders have always been a safe bet, but perhaps not the cheapest option. I still use MiniDV format, which is reliable and provides high quality uncompressed footage. Import via Firewire to a Mac is a doddle. After importing you can either re-use the tapes or keep them as a source back-up (which is what I do). Hard disk camcorders are another option, but there is more compression and I'm not convinced about the long term durability of a portable hard disk. There are some solid state drives around too, but generally a lot more expensive. Although I haven't looked at them for over a year, so they may be cheaper now.
I also use a helmet cam, so AV in and LANC ports were a necessity for me. Not many current consumer camcorders still have these ports, so that's something to consider if you want the option of a helmet cam.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Sorry, I thought it was a new game.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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snobunni, hard-drive based camcorders have at least the same, even more moving parts, that require much more precision to operate correctly. How do you think the hard-drive spins? HDDs operate within very fine tolerances at very high speeds with very small parts.
Required features are MiniDV-based; Firewire In/Out, SVideo In/Out (for helmet/bullet cameras), viewfinder (LCD screens aren't much use on very sunny days). In the price bracket MiniDV gives far superior quality than the HDD or card-based options - always record at the highest quality you can, and then downgrade it later.
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You know it makes sense.
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I bought a little Xacti last season. It was small and compact and worked well in Feb '07 in Val Thoren. I was so pleased with it I have now gone for the HD version. It takes SD cards which is great for me because they are cheap, I can use them with my still camera and there are no moving parts. Will be going to Jackson Hole this year so wanted an HD one to play in glorious technicolour! It also has image stabilization and a "face chaser" feature tht identifies a face and focuses on that. I am so pleased with my purchase and found it to be excellent value for money.
http://www.sanyodigital.com/hd700.aspx
Seems to work ok on the Mac - http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6198368
I found it ok without a view finder in bright snowy conditions- I didn't want to hump loads of kit around on the piste with me. This fitted inside my jacket pocket and was ideal for me- I am not a cinematographer, I just wanted to have a keepsake. I also didn't want to wonder into crowded bars and leave it sitting around!
I was able to take the poles in both hands, use the trigger-like Xacti in the spare hand, skiing along side my girlfriend down a number of pistes- quite easily as a good-ish intermediate skier. I am not sure, but I would imagine I would have struggled with a large camcorder!
£200-250 ish so within budget. Use the remainder to buy a spare battery. You will find that in the cold the battery life will drop- even more so with any camera that has moving parts.
Although I use a PC it was fun to edit the clips to music and so simple to transfer over. I have used my Xacti for skiing, grand canon helicopter trips, Paris- all sorts of places where I can shove it in my pocket and not worry about taking a bag around with me. I figured if I had to do that I wouldn't use it as much.
The helmet cams look like fun but most of the ones I have seen at the price you are looking for do not seem to produce good results- the "Jack Osborne adrenelin junky" ones are a lot more expensive!
Anyone else got any thoughts? Best of luck!
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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If you prefer a camcorder that records to a memory card (SD in this case) check out the Canon HF100 Vixia (HD video). Good quality, easy to transfer. Just realised this is probably out of price range .
Go for a decent miniDV one, sonys are always good. should be a lot of choices for that price, especially if you stay with SD
the helmet cams are generally pretty bad - and always too low a resolution for my liking
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