Bowman4440

hey i am looking to get started in filming most of my hunts if not all. I need advice on what camera to get. My price range is up to $600 dollars ish. I want a camera that will video decently at low light because most of my shots are right before dark. I have windows movie maker on my computer. I was thinking of getting a camera with a hard drive so i didnt have to hassle with changing tapes or what not in the stand. Any help/advice would be appreciated

MichiganWhitetails74

I would not worry about changing tapes...You may want to stick to a mini-dv cam ....Sony or Panisonic for 300-400 bucks....I would buy a cheap editting software like pinnacle studio 11 for about 60 bucks...

Windows movie make may not give you the versitility....

This set-up will get you on board with making fun DVDs of your hunts.

Bowman4440

How will the DVD's come out when viewing them on tv. I did a little research about effective pixels and lux rating and i read that you need about 1.5-2 megapixels for the dvd to look decent on the tv. any insight?

lungbuster12point06

Mega pixels generally refer to still photography...........................if your talking about resolution, you will want a camera with at least 480 lines or higher (higher is better).........finding a low light camera for the money you have to spend is going to be next to impossible, most consumer cameras are in the 5-7 lux range which is not going to get you very good low light video. If you want good low light you will need to step up to the next level camera, pro-sumer........expect to spend anywhere from 1200-2500 for a good pro-sumer camera and look for a lux rating of 3 or less.

Bowman4440

ok thank you. what cameras do you all use?

skin_dog1

I use 2 cams, my main cam is a canon xha1 ($3300), the second cam I use is a sony hc21 ($300). The little sony is a good consumber cam and works well for what I use it for. I try to get 2 camera angles on most hunts, the handicam is pointed at the hunter and the fancy cam at the critter. I've filmed with the handicam in a crunch a few times and it's surprising at how good it looks. If you have $600 to spend total, then I'd look at the sony handicam that is currnetly available, should be less than $350, also look at getting one of the cheap camera arms like the gorilla arm. Splyurge and get a lanc controller so that youi can easily zoom and use the manual focus on the camera. Bogen makes one for $189. You should be able to get all 3 for $600 and then upgrade the tree arm as soon as funds allow, then if you want to go further, upgrade the camera. Canon and sony have some consumer hd cams that are pretty awesome for around $1000. Your friends and family will love watching the vids!

reelcrazyfish

Ditto what skin dog1 said. I can see a huge difference with my Sony HDR-FX1 compared to my Sony handi-cam, but at the time I thought (and still do) think the quality with the handicam was good enough for home movies. We'll be doing what skin dog is, having the better camera focused on the game and using the handicam for the hunter shot.

Bowman4440

Man thats a lot in the tree with me. Does anyone ever have problems with deer seing all this extra stuff?

skin_dog1

Try setting up with a 200lb camera man, 2 stands, full size camera and tree arm, plus all the accompanying equipment! You with a little handicam, small tree arm and bow isn't much at all. It can be done, the fun part is figuring out how to do it without getting busted. You have to be able to live with the occasional deer looking up and catching the camera man moving or making a mistake. It's gonna happen, although, after 3 years of filming, it happens less and less every year.

JakeinTX

Hi,

I had a Sony Prosumer VX2100. It was a neat camera, but I realized that it was more than I needed at this stage of what I am doing. I had spent $1200 on a great used setup. I sold that camera and got a Panasonic PV-GS320. The video is decent while I learn about editing. I can already tell that iMovie on my Macbook is a neat program bu I will be getting Final Cut Express soon. While I learn I have been watching the higher end digital Video cameras come down in price. That maybe where I go in a year or so. Then I can do like skin and point the cheaper one at me.
Jake