DV video camera. Which one?

I bought a Canon one, mainly because it had an AV-in as I have a bullet camera lens which I use when mountain biking and off-road motorbiking. The video camera has been subjected to considerable abuse but still works well and the quality is pretty good.

Steve, interesting. Wondered about AV-in since I fly gliders and it would be interesting to mount a camera outside the cockpit. Can you give any details of the gear you use? Sources, ca. prices etc.?

Thanks.

/david

I got a Sony HC40e about 2 summers ago and find it excellent.

It's very easy to use. Everything is controlled by on screen touch display.

There is probably a newer model out now but at the time a few magazines I bought recommended it highly.

Which! at the moment has 3 pansonics as best buys the

Panasonic NV-GS75B
• Panasonic NV-GS150B
• Panasonic NV-GS250B

The 2 sites I use to buy digital cameras and camcorders are
Pixmania and Nomatica

These both will give full information about cameras and let you compare them. I've found the prices very competitive.

These are the things I would look for

• DV out and AV in
• optical zoom
• mini DV format (not dvd)
• image stabilisation
• output to widescreen

It's a great time to buy as the technology for the price is fairly amazing. Which! sites Sony as above average reliability, Canon Pansonic and Sharp as average and JVC as below average although the percentage difference is between 90 and 95% so they are all pretty reliable.



SJB

I got mine from RF Components

If I recall correctly mine is their "Camera 1" package which currently costs £99 - that includes everything you need (including a microphone) except the camcorder itself.

My camcorder is one of the Canon MV range (can't recall exactly which model - possibly the MV750i) which I think is now discontinued.

I've got a couple of clips on the web at:

http://www.incisus.com/srg/bh250.wmv http://www.incisus.com/srg/harlawexit.wmv

I had to downsize them a lot for the web, however the quality of the full-size output is actually very good.

Steve, thats amazing

/dl

When I saw that gate I thought it was not going to be a happy ending .

What editing package do you use Steve?



SJB

quote:

Originally posted by Sloop John B:
What editing package do you use Steve?

Just the freebie one that comes with XP - Windows Movie Maker - although I downloaded the latest version.

Really good stuff Steve. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers - I haven't used the bullet cam for ages but I must get round to taking some new footage. I was thinking about attaching it low down on the bikes frame looking forward through the forks as I thought that might be quite dramatic, plus give a better impression of the speed.

The helmet cam shots don't seem to convey speed very well. On the longer clip of the two it's a 1.5 mile section that the film was taken on which, as the clip is 5 minutes long, gives an average speed of about 18mph but it looks much slower.

You've got me checking out bikes on the web! A colleague has just purchased a Specialised hybrid. He seems impressed.

quote:

Originally posted by Chris Kelly:
You've got me checking out bikes on the web! A colleague has just purchased a Specialised hybrid. He seems impressed.

I'm not a big fan of hybrid bikes myself, however Specialized bikes are normally pretty good bikes and usually good value as well. One of my mountain bikes is a Specialized and I'm pretty sure I was riding it when that helmet-cam footage was shot: