Need an opinion on a DV camera.......

**Spaghetti** · 03-05-2005, 01:06 PM

I need an opinion on this digital camera - I'm looking for something small that I can carry around with me when snowboarding, and thought something like this would be a good solution. Obviously it's not quite on the same bar as a MiniDV (which I'd quite like) but hopefully this will help me capture the essence of my trip better than still photo's.

I know nothing about digital camcorders, but surely someone here can shed some light....

**neon_eddy** · 03-05-2005, 02:09 PM

I do some video production work, so I'm biased toward traditional miniDV, but this camera you found loks promising.. it worries me when they say "vhs quality" .. when it's a digital format.. does that mean it will get blocky at times?.. or what.. either way I would want to see one, hold one, and test it abit even in a store.

the solid state is nice for snowboarding.. cannon makes some nice miniDV cameras.. that are smal.. panasonic has a nice 3ccd one.. for about $500.

with my miniDV I notice on cold weather you can have issues.. and the tape can get brittle.. and contract.. and it could cause problems when played back warm. ..

for the sole purpose of recording for snowboarding.. I think this is a good deal.. for the all around camera.. it can do it. I'm just not sure about editing.. so if editing isn't an issue.. go for it.

-shawn

**Spaghetti** · 03-05-2005, 03:35 PM

Hi,
The actual camera I'm looking at is this one, I made a mistake with the link before, but it's pretty much the same kinda thing. The measurements mean it's about the same dimensions as a cigarette packet, albiet about 10mm thicker, so it's perfect for what I'm looking for. This one's actually discontinued, but there are used ones around plus similar from other brands which I'm looking at. Your issues with temperature certainly gives the solid state camera an edge for me too.
As for editing, it's a 2 megapixel mpeg4 so I'm assuming it isn't too much of an issue. The idea is for me to create a Flash projector CD which I can then send out to friends etc - I'm not too bothered about viewing the media on a DVD player or anything like that just yet.......

**rushnrockt** · 03-07-2005, 02:41 AM

Originally Posted by Spaghetti

Hi,
The actual camera I'm looking at is this one, I made a mistake with the link before, but it's pretty much the same kinda thing. The measurements mean it's about the same dimensions as a cigarette packet, albiet about 10mm thicker, so it's perfect for what I'm looking for. This one's actually discontinued, but there are used ones around plus similar from other brands which I'm looking at. Your issues with temperature certainly gives the solid state camera an edge for me too.
As for editing, it's a 2 megapixel mpeg4 so I'm assuming it isn't too much of an issue. The idea is for me to create a Flash projector CD which I can then send out to friends etc - I'm not too bothered about viewing the media on a DVD player or anything like that just yet.......

No optical zoom!!!! If this was DV camera, it would not be as MUCH of an issue... but since its mpeg4, any kind of digital zoom will destroy the picture. If you can find something similar but with zoom function, you should be all good.

**Spaghetti** · 03-07-2005, 01:08 PM

I don't think many in that bracket (ie, size, price, etc) have optical zoom. Is it really that bad.....???? Some of the reviews for small mpeg4 are pretty good.....
Need more opinions!

**Scouse Monkey** · 03-07-2005, 01:51 PM

optical zoom is much better but if you want cheap and mpeg4 then i guess they are your best bet. I liek the quality off my sony cybershot video but it is mpeg 2 i think. Can do 5 minutes TV quality on 128mb and 90 minutes web quality on 128mb. it is an old P9. Been eyeing up the 7 million pixel P120 with carl zeiss lens

EDIT: my P9 can also take .gif action shots and multi-photo action shots which came in handy at the ski show at the NEC last year on the jumps.

**Spaghetti** · 03-07-2005, 02:28 PM

Mmm...those cybershots look nice, but kinda outta my budget at this moment in time

**Scouse Monkey** · 03-07-2005, 02:40 PM

thats the badboy! it is half as thick as mine and for 3.2 million more pixels and a carl zeiss lens and manual mode

Bollocks!!!

Oh and it has memorystick pro.

main problme with my P9 is the slow autofocus and lens is not clear enough for low light. I just wish they would put a bigger zoom than 3x on! it is crap! Would love an SLR but too big and expensive. The sony above can be got for less than £300 now.

**Spaghetti** · 03-07-2005, 02:51 PM

That, is a sexy piece of hardware - I wanna j*zz my pants just looking at it......
The only thing I'd change about it is the shape - make it easier to hold when filming video - so you sort of hold it like a gun if you like, like some other small cams.
I was gonna buy a creative zen touch if I had the cash this month (for my 25hr bus trip to the alps...), but I'm leaning towards this bad boy mofo cam.....
The only thing I'm wondering is what sort of resolution video are we looking at for this? I can't decipher the tech specs at all.......

**Scouse Monkey** · 03-07-2005, 03:08 PM

my P9 does 320x240 HQX mode, 320x240 normal and 160x112. But from what i hear the P10 (5million pixel and MSpro) has a lto better video (next one up from HQX) and the P120 should be even better - the bigger MSpro should let them use 640x480 resolution. The level of detail in stills from 4million pixels is silly - wanna see what 7 million can do.

I used my camera to video some tensile testing of bolted carbon fibre joints getting pulled apart by a machine that could provide 100kN of force (10 tons) and i could actually slow the video down using microsoft movie maker to get a slow motion of the break occuring - pretty impressive for any normal video camera let alon a stills camera. What was even more impressive was you could hear the fibres breaking milliseconds before the failure over the noise of the hydraulic pumps driving the machine as they were high frequency. I was damn impressed!