[mattmarshall]

hey all....

i'm finally going to make the jump into dv.....but, i need camera advice.

i'll be editing on an iMac and a Pismo powerbook. but, neither machine has enough hard drive space (6 and 10 gigs), so i'll be using my firewire 80 gig hard drive. i heard that certain cameras allow you to capture video directly to the FW hard drive. are sony's the ones?

any suggestions on what to buy?
i'm looking in the 600 dollar range, cheaper if possible.

what's the best camera in this range that would capture to my FW hard drive?

any and all suggestions welcome......


thanks


matt

[Chuck_star]

I have no experience with firewire drives but my brothers Sony TRV Digital 8 works like a dream with my G4. Anyways congrats on whatever new purchase you make. DV and G4 seam to go hand in hand.

[ 10-31-2001: Message edited by: Chuck_star ]

[GK]

I have a sony dcr-pc110 and love it. i do dv editing on my ti400, absolutely no problems. use firewire from transintl (7200, 40g, oxford 911). there is a harddrive available that can be attaches directly to the dv cam and ypu can put your footage on the disk w/o a computer. however, the tehcnology that can do that is specific to the HD, not the dv camera. if you have such a drive you can use any dv cam. for more info i suggest you should ask your question in the www.2-pop.com fora. great resource, very helpful contributiors.


hopw that helps.

ps. if you buy firewire hdm be sure that it has oxford 911 chip, ideallt speed 7200, lower may result in dropped frames. i have good experience with ibm drives, several people have had issues with maxtor drives (dropped frames, hd crashes). also, some canon dv cameras have problems with mac, resulting in dropped frames or camera not being recognized. before you buy, be sure to make a lot of research.


hope that helps

[scottiB]

I've a Canon ZR-10 and a Maxtor 80 GB FW drive that I use solely for iMovie. The drive is 5400 RPM, and I've had no problems capturing straight to it through my iMac DV 400.

Every once in a while I reformat it when I've finished a project just to keep in unfragmented.

[mattmarshall]

thanks for the helpful reports.....these forums never fail to meet my needs!

scotti--that's the drive I have--the 80 gig maxtor--which i know is the slower drive. glad to hear the speed is adequate. how about the picture on the zr-10? sound? Over on Cnet's reviews, they seemed "so-so" on the quality of the picture. This would be my first video camera, so i probably have low standards, but i'd like to know that it will look and sound pretty good.

i've got a canon digital still camera, and the picture is amazing. my positive experience with it makes me want to stay with Canon. However, everywhere I read that "Sony makes the best dv cameras' etc etc.....

this is truly a confusing purchase to make--worse than purchasing a PC. So many different types, so many details I have no idea about.

any ideas on Sony vs Canon? How about the picture on the zr-10 vs. the sony cams? sound?


thanks all!

-matt

[ 11-02-2001: Message edited by: mattmarshall ]

[King Chung Huang]

Originally posted by mattmarshall:
<STRONG> i heard that certain cameras allow you to capture video directly to the FW hard drive. are sony's the ones?</STRONG>

The Canon XL-1S allows you to connect a FireWire hard drive directly the camera and record onto it. I use one at work. I'm not sure which other cameras support this ability, though.

[scottiB]

Hey Matt,

I was doing what you were doing 18 months--ripping my hair out with specs and whatnot--the stuff I learned along the way...

• miniDV is preferable to digital8 in image quality--this can be debated, I suppose, but from what I've read it is. Plus the tapes are smaller--allowing the camera to be smaller. Buy them from Costco or whatever, usually $6-7 a piece. If you have a hi-8 camera and tapes already, the digi8 cameras may make more sense since those tapes can be used with them--to capture old movies and whatnot.
  
• Optical is preferable to digital--in terms of camera specs. Digital zoom is, ahem, crappier than optical, and I try not to use it often. If a camera lists a 10x optical zoom + a 300x digital zoom, it's, to me, not as good as one with a 15x optical + a 200x digital. Digital frame stabilization is not as good as optical, either. Not to go into specifics, but trust me. Optical stabilization cameras, though, begin at $900 or so.
  
• Don't be concerned with "Special Effects" that come with cameras: Sepia, Black and White, etc. That's what iMovie is for.

I bought my ZR-10 for $800 last year and have been pretty happy with it. Things I've learned:

• It's not very good in low light. Since the ZR-10's stabilization and low light features are both digital, both can't be used simultaneously. Low light trumps stabilization (and digital zoom trumps them both). I shoot a lot of my rock band's shows--in low light seedy bars--and a tripod is mandatory. Interior shooting is OK, just make sure that a lot of lights are on. Daytime exteriors are best--as with any camera.
• Battery life is good. One will last through 90 minutes of continuous shooting. Using the viewfinder instead of the flip-out LCD saves battery life. Buy an extra battery or two or three. As well, the battery can only be charged through the camera--there is no separate charging station.
• The size is wonderful and the quality is first rate.
• It does not have analog-to-DV passthrough. Meaning that analog must be first recorded to DV, then used in iMovie. Some Sony cameras can act as an analog to DV bridge.

Other than stabilization, most things (brightness, etc.) can be corrected in iMovie.

Here's some links to ePinion user ratings:

epinions and zr-10epinions and Sony

The ZR-10/20 comes in at about 3 out of 5 stars. However, for today only, the ZR-10 is selling for $350.00 at Amazon--a holy effin' sh!+--good price. Too low to pass, IMHO--low light be damned.

Regarding capturing directly to a FW drive. I'm not sure why you'd want to. The XL-1S is a $3000-4000 pro camera. That ability would be needed in the field where the editing time would be reduced by being able to pull the clips directly into Final Cut--no importing needed.

Lugging the Maxtor HD around with an extension cord wouldn't be a benefit in the way I work. Plus, how would one back up those clips? The cool thing about miniDV is that I have a built archive of source clips.

Good luck and I hope this helps....

[ 11-02-2001: Message edited by: scottiB ]

[ 11-02-2001: Message edited by: scottiB ]