Camcorder Advice, Por Favor?

One of the things B and I want to do is start recording videos in the field. I can show you a lot through photos and short snippets of video, but there’s so much magnificent geology around here, and some of it really deserves more of a documentary-type treatment. I’d like to take you on a virtual walk, explaining what we’re seeing. And, major bonus, when we go geogallivanting with Lockwood, you’d be able to experience his expertise like we do. Lockwood is one of the most knowledgeable people around when it comes to Pacific Northwest geology, and Oregon geology in particular. I’d like to capture those field trips for posterity, so that everyone has a chance to soak up his knowledge. We get visiting geologists, too, and it would be outstanding to capture their visits on video.

Problem is, I’m a luddite when it comes to video equipment. I’ll have to hope at least one of you knows their stuff. Halp?

I need something light and portable, easy to operate, and preferably cheapish, since I haven’t got a huge amount of money to spend. I also need to know what equipment I’ll need to capture decent audio in the field.

If you could point me towards tutorials for creating watchable videos on the cheap, that would be outstanding. Thankee kindly!

Image shows a cat leaping to one side. Caption says, "Invisible movie explosion"

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Camcorder Advice, Por Favor?
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3 thoughts on “Camcorder Advice, Por Favor?

  1. 1

    Okay, here’s some advice from a dedicated beginner. Everything I know about videography I learned from commentaries on Joss Whedon DVDs, so take it for what it’s worth.

    The Canon VIXIA HF R500 is $200. It’s the newer version of and one step down from the HF M50 that I have, which I really like. Look up “Stomp Kick Waltz” on youtube if you want to see an example of its quality. That’s under stage lights; it does even better in natural light. It also has remarkably good sound for an on-camera mic, which is what you’re going to be using if you want cheap. (The sound in that video is mostly camera sound before they start singing.)

    The most important consideration for making the footage look professional is camera roll (rotation about the long axis of the camera). The built-in image stabilization of modern camcorders is very good at cleaning up side-to-side (yaw) and up-and-down (pitch) movement, but only the expensive ones (probably starting around $1000, but I’m not sure exactly) have correction for roll. And the camera has very little moment of inertia, so it’s all down to how steadily you can hold it.

    The best solution for that is to get a monopod. A tripod is more stable, but a monopod is much easier to carry around in the field. It gives you a stable point on the ground (and since it only has one foot, you don’t need a flat area to use it), and makes it much easier to hold the camera stable. And even if you are shooting handheld because you need to follow something around, the camera roll is much improved by collapsing the monopod and leaving it attached to the camera. It’s sort of a cheap-o version of a steadicam. Of course you can get an actual steadicam harness for not too much money if you really want to do it right, but since you’ll want the monopod anyway, that’s no extra cost. I have an OSN monopod, that’s $25, and it’s great.

    I use Final Cut Pro to edit, but iMovie is really not bad for simple stuff, and much cheaper. I would stay away from fancy transitions and effects; just put the content there and let it speak for itself. One thing that helps me is to edit something up, then go away from it for a day, and watch some videos I really like to sync my brain up to the tempo of well-edited video. (I find Firefly is a good choice.) Then come back and look at what I did, and fix all the transitions that are too fast or too slow, or just clunky.

    I hope that helps. Can’t wait to see your work on video!

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