Elow guys
I need help about video camera cause im planning on buying one.
what is the most important spec to look for in a camera before I buy.
theres
?? megapixel then theres
?? megapixel cmos and
?? megapixel sensor
Thanks for your help
Need help about video camera
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post-it
- Joined: Wed Jul 17, 2002 5:21 am
- Status: Hunting Tanks
- Location: Chilliwack - Fishing
.. 8 to 25 mega pixel still-frame cameras' are fairly good at capturing large pictures with plenty of detail. if your going to get the larger of the two, if only in your dreams, ask yourself how much space each picture needs and buy the proper amount memory/flash-card size to store things for you while your away from your computer.
.. I'm tired, hope that made some sense to you ..
.. I'm tired, hope that made some sense to you ..
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Vo!D
- Joined: Mon Mar 12, 2007 3:59 pm
- Location: N-Field
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post-it
- Joined: Wed Jul 17, 2002 5:21 am
- Status: Hunting Tanks
- Location: Chilliwack - Fishing
.. hmmm .. amusing what they are NOT talking about there!
Digital Zoom with Analog zoom T_T
.. Digital Zoom is a handy feature; regardless of the view, it will always be in focus.
.. .. what they ignored was the scene change/refresh times to eliminate "Blur of Motion."
.. .. .. Analog zoom causes Blur of Motion and degrades the Focus of the picture.
.. .. .. the stronger the Analog Lense, the less accurate the details in the scene will be.
Wide Screen is actually the preferred choice in 9 mega pixel PLUS camera's
.. AISO is not a Video Standard T_T
.. AVCHD is a codec but not for Audio T_T
.. USB connector for the camera & its software ... are where?
.. Auto-Leveling-Noise-Reduction >_<
---- I have to stop right here, because I'm rolling on the floor & laughing so hard I can't breath!
Digital Zoom with Analog zoom T_T
.. Digital Zoom is a handy feature; regardless of the view, it will always be in focus.
.. .. what they ignored was the scene change/refresh times to eliminate "Blur of Motion."
.. .. .. Analog zoom causes Blur of Motion and degrades the Focus of the picture.
.. .. .. the stronger the Analog Lense, the less accurate the details in the scene will be.
Wide Screen is actually the preferred choice in 9 mega pixel PLUS camera's
.. AISO is not a Video Standard T_T
.. AVCHD is a codec but not for Audio T_T
.. USB connector for the camera & its software ... are where?
Audio is CD quality .. T_T off of a microphone that is built-in to the camera T_TImage Resolution: 3840x2880 (11M Pixels), 2592x1944 (5M Pixels), 1600x1200 (2M Pixels)
Movie Resolution: VGA 640x480 pixels 30 fps, QVGA 320X240 pixels 30 fps
. .. "SD/MMC Card Slot support (up to 2GB)" .. 0_0 kinda small ain't it?
.. . Image Sensor: 5 Mega Pixel Sensor Up to 11 megapixel still photos
File Format: Picture： JPEG, Movie ： AVI (Xvid), Voice ： WAV, Music ： MP3
.. Auto-Leveling-Noise-Reduction >_<
---- I have to stop right here, because I'm rolling on the floor & laughing so hard I can't breath!
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post-it
- Joined: Wed Jul 17, 2002 5:21 am
- Status: Hunting Tanks
- Location: Chilliwack - Fishing
.. a two year old model at 5 mega pixels:
http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/review/san ... vie_camera
.. Digital Camera standards this year:
http://www.sanyo-dsc.com/english/index.html
.. a year old model at 6 mega pixels & designed to work under water:
http://www.sanyo-dsc.com/english/produc ... index.html
.. beware of what they don't tell you; learn from the best what the standards mean.
http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/review/san ... vie_camera
.. Digital Camera standards this year:
http://www.sanyo-dsc.com/english/index.html
.. a year old model at 6 mega pixels & designed to work under water:
http://www.sanyo-dsc.com/english/produc ... index.html
.. beware of what they don't tell you; learn from the best what the standards mean.
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Willen
- Now in Hi-Def!
- Joined: Sun Jul 10, 2005 1:50 am
- Status: Melancholy
- Location: SOS-Dan HQ
Things to consider for hardware:
Unless you need still image capture (photos) high megapixels aren't important. If it is, 3+ megapixels is good for the typical 4" x 6" print. Even HDTV resolutions top out at 2 megapixels for a 1920x1080p video (2,073,600 pixels). Many times more pixels mean smaller pixels so light sensitivity goes down on the small CCD and CMOS sensors that these cameras use.
High megapixel CCD or CMOS sensors may be larger than their non- or low megapixel equivalent models. So while the megapixel models may have many small pixels, the overall size of the sensor is larger, offsetting the difference. Plus, more pixels equals higher resolution capture (to a point, see above). Essentially, you should try to get the largest sensor you can if low light performance is important.
Many people overlook the fact that lens quality of their cameras makes a difference in image capture. Ever wonder why the pictures of your cellphone looks kinda crappy? (OK, the image sensors are crap too.) Most major manufacturers use branded lenses either developed within the company (Canon) or licensed from high-end optics manufacturers (Sony = Carl Zeiss, Panasonic = Leica, JVC = Fujinon/Fujifilm). Licensed lenses are designed by the branded company but still manufactured by the camera maker (i.e. the Carl Zeiss lenses used in Sony cameras are designed by Carl Zeiss but virtually all made by Sony).
Speaking of lenses, optical zooms are far and away superior to digital zooms. Ignore the 200x, 500x, 800x, 1000x, etc. Digital Zoom numbers you see on the camera bodies, those are marketing numbers. Professional video cameras either don't have digital zooms or may have a 2x extender (i.e. a 10x zoom becomes a 20x zoom). In fact, I always turn off the digital zoom option for my cameras as soon as I start using them. Most high-end consumer camcorders typically offer 10x or 12x optical zooms instead of the 20x, 30x, or higher optical zooms on the lower-end models. Why? It's a trade-off between size, weight, and quality. Longer zooms require the light to travel farther to get to the image sensor from where it enters the lens. This means a fall off of light levels is unavoidable. To offset this effect you can use a better light gathering lens up front but those are larger and heavier (not to mention more expensive). It's more difficult and expensive to develop good high-zoom optical lenses so you'll see many cheap brands use digital zooms to enhance their numbers. High zooms (optical and especially digital) have a drawback: shakier images as the zoom goes up. Not only do you magnify the image X times, any movement of the camera gets magnified the same X times. This brings us to...
There are 2 types of Image Stabilization: the more common electronic (digital) type and the superior optical type. (http://www.videomaker.com/article/3587/) Even in electronic stabilizations there are 2 distinct systems: EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization) like that used by Panasonic, JVC and others that track the image or subject and systems like the electronic version of SteadyShot used by Sony which utilizes motion sensors that detect the movement of the camera. Both types use a portion of the image sensor as a buffer area to shift the image to compensate for camera movement (i.e. if the camera moves up, the image is shifted down). Panasonic's EIS can be fooled into activating if the subject starts moving up and down even if the camera doesn't move.
Formats:
Tape (DV, HDV): Tape is the preferred format for editing since all NLEs support DV format importing and exporting. HDV is also widely supported although you'll need a slightly more powerful machine to edit it's MPEG-2 codec video. It's easy to archive footage since all you have to do is stick the tape somewhere safe after you're done. Limiting factors are the record time (typically 60 minutes DV at SP mode or 63 minutes HDV) and the non-linear nature of tape (transferring footage to your computer takes time, not to mention that finding scenes is a pain).
Disc (DVD, AVCHD DVD): The main advantage is the ability to record then play the video back on a standalone player without having to edit or transfer the video with a PC or other hardware. AVCHD (Advanced Video Codec High Definition) DVDs can be played back on many Blu-ray machines and PCs that have software installed to handle the special format of MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) video and Dolby Digital 5.1 (AC3) or LPCM audio. Biggest drawback is that recording times are quite limited - 30 minutes at SP for DVD, 20+ minutes at SP for AVCHD on a standard 3" (8cm) DVD blank. Double Layer DVD+R discs record 55 and 45 minutes respectively, but are much more expensive than single layer discs. They are more sensitive to movement due to the nature of optical disc technology (remember how old portable CD players used to skip quite a bit if you moved them around?). Also, you may need to finalize the DVD for playback depending on the disc used and the player's requirements which adds complexity. Editing footage from standard def DVDs (MPEG-2, VOB file or other) is not an issue with most modern NLE software. Although you'd want to probably handle them similar to AMV editing from DVDs if frame accuracy is needed. AVCHD is a whole other issue due to the much higher hardware requirements to edit high definition video easily. Archiving footage can be done with storing the original discs or combining them to full-size 5" DVDs or storing the files on hard drives or other backup media.
Hard Drive (HDD): Since the files and formats used on HDD models are the same as DVD and AVCHD cameras the same comments apply. The main advantage of HDD models is the ability to record many hours of video without the need to purchase (additional) media - try recording over 2 hours with any other camcorder. Biggest downside is that there's a spinning hard drive in there and just like iPods and Notebook PCs they don't like shocks or too much movement. Another issue is that after a while, you'll fill that hard drive and you'll need to transfer off the video footage to a PC hard drive or to DVDs with a standalone recorder, although transfers to PCs are usually very fast due to most models using USB 2.0 High Speed interfaces. HDD models can't be used purely standalone like tape or disc units (unless you never intend to save your videos long term). Archival options are the same as DVD models except that you can't store the originals directly.
Flash Media / Solid State: There are many different formats available for this category and even many digital still cameras with a good movie mode can substitute for a video camera with similar quality. Quality can vary depending on the file format used, the video/audio codecs used, and at what resolution the camera captures with. For this instance, I'll eliminate all the models that don't record SD or HD resolutions (i.e. anything lower than 640x480 at 24 or 30 fps, NTSC). As such, you have your choice of memory card used (SD, CF, MS, etc.), file format (AVI, MPG, MPEG-TS, etc.), and resolution (480i, 720p, 1080i/p, etc.). The biggest downsides are the cost of the media (even at today's prices, flash memory is still much more expensive than tape, disc, or HDDs) and the limited capacities available (although this is nearly a non-issue). Editing is trickier due to the wide variety of possible formats and codecs used. Archival storage options are the same as with HDD camcorders.
Unless you need still image capture (photos) high megapixels aren't important. If it is, 3+ megapixels is good for the typical 4" x 6" print. Even HDTV resolutions top out at 2 megapixels for a 1920x1080p video (2,073,600 pixels). Many times more pixels mean smaller pixels so light sensitivity goes down on the small CCD and CMOS sensors that these cameras use.
High megapixel CCD or CMOS sensors may be larger than their non- or low megapixel equivalent models. So while the megapixel models may have many small pixels, the overall size of the sensor is larger, offsetting the difference. Plus, more pixels equals higher resolution capture (to a point, see above). Essentially, you should try to get the largest sensor you can if low light performance is important.
Many people overlook the fact that lens quality of their cameras makes a difference in image capture. Ever wonder why the pictures of your cellphone looks kinda crappy? (OK, the image sensors are crap too.) Most major manufacturers use branded lenses either developed within the company (Canon) or licensed from high-end optics manufacturers (Sony = Carl Zeiss, Panasonic = Leica, JVC = Fujinon/Fujifilm). Licensed lenses are designed by the branded company but still manufactured by the camera maker (i.e. the Carl Zeiss lenses used in Sony cameras are designed by Carl Zeiss but virtually all made by Sony).
Speaking of lenses, optical zooms are far and away superior to digital zooms. Ignore the 200x, 500x, 800x, 1000x, etc. Digital Zoom numbers you see on the camera bodies, those are marketing numbers. Professional video cameras either don't have digital zooms or may have a 2x extender (i.e. a 10x zoom becomes a 20x zoom). In fact, I always turn off the digital zoom option for my cameras as soon as I start using them. Most high-end consumer camcorders typically offer 10x or 12x optical zooms instead of the 20x, 30x, or higher optical zooms on the lower-end models. Why? It's a trade-off between size, weight, and quality. Longer zooms require the light to travel farther to get to the image sensor from where it enters the lens. This means a fall off of light levels is unavoidable. To offset this effect you can use a better light gathering lens up front but those are larger and heavier (not to mention more expensive). It's more difficult and expensive to develop good high-zoom optical lenses so you'll see many cheap brands use digital zooms to enhance their numbers. High zooms (optical and especially digital) have a drawback: shakier images as the zoom goes up. Not only do you magnify the image X times, any movement of the camera gets magnified the same X times. This brings us to...
There are 2 types of Image Stabilization: the more common electronic (digital) type and the superior optical type. (http://www.videomaker.com/article/3587/) Even in electronic stabilizations there are 2 distinct systems: EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization) like that used by Panasonic, JVC and others that track the image or subject and systems like the electronic version of SteadyShot used by Sony which utilizes motion sensors that detect the movement of the camera. Both types use a portion of the image sensor as a buffer area to shift the image to compensate for camera movement (i.e. if the camera moves up, the image is shifted down). Panasonic's EIS can be fooled into activating if the subject starts moving up and down even if the camera doesn't move.
The motion sensor type doesn't do this. Neither do optical image stabilization systems which use either a shifting lens or adjustable prism to redirect the light to hit the image sensor correctly since they also use motion sensors.You can also trick the systems that evaluate the CCD to determine if the camcorder is in motion when a large portion of the screen contains a moving subject. This could be a train pulling out of the station, a van driving by, or even just a person moving near the lens. One time, a camcorder tested by can Videomaker had an interesting reaction when we bounced a large cardboard box a few feet in front of the lens. With EIS engaged, the box stayed stationary on the screen while the rest of the world seemed to be moving up and down.
Formats:
Tape (DV, HDV): Tape is the preferred format for editing since all NLEs support DV format importing and exporting. HDV is also widely supported although you'll need a slightly more powerful machine to edit it's MPEG-2 codec video. It's easy to archive footage since all you have to do is stick the tape somewhere safe after you're done. Limiting factors are the record time (typically 60 minutes DV at SP mode or 63 minutes HDV) and the non-linear nature of tape (transferring footage to your computer takes time, not to mention that finding scenes is a pain).
Disc (DVD, AVCHD DVD): The main advantage is the ability to record then play the video back on a standalone player without having to edit or transfer the video with a PC or other hardware. AVCHD (Advanced Video Codec High Definition) DVDs can be played back on many Blu-ray machines and PCs that have software installed to handle the special format of MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) video and Dolby Digital 5.1 (AC3) or LPCM audio. Biggest drawback is that recording times are quite limited - 30 minutes at SP for DVD, 20+ minutes at SP for AVCHD on a standard 3" (8cm) DVD blank. Double Layer DVD+R discs record 55 and 45 minutes respectively, but are much more expensive than single layer discs. They are more sensitive to movement due to the nature of optical disc technology (remember how old portable CD players used to skip quite a bit if you moved them around?). Also, you may need to finalize the DVD for playback depending on the disc used and the player's requirements which adds complexity. Editing footage from standard def DVDs (MPEG-2, VOB file or other) is not an issue with most modern NLE software. Although you'd want to probably handle them similar to AMV editing from DVDs if frame accuracy is needed. AVCHD is a whole other issue due to the much higher hardware requirements to edit high definition video easily. Archiving footage can be done with storing the original discs or combining them to full-size 5" DVDs or storing the files on hard drives or other backup media.
Hard Drive (HDD): Since the files and formats used on HDD models are the same as DVD and AVCHD cameras the same comments apply. The main advantage of HDD models is the ability to record many hours of video without the need to purchase (additional) media - try recording over 2 hours with any other camcorder. Biggest downside is that there's a spinning hard drive in there and just like iPods and Notebook PCs they don't like shocks or too much movement. Another issue is that after a while, you'll fill that hard drive and you'll need to transfer off the video footage to a PC hard drive or to DVDs with a standalone recorder, although transfers to PCs are usually very fast due to most models using USB 2.0 High Speed interfaces. HDD models can't be used purely standalone like tape or disc units (unless you never intend to save your videos long term). Archival options are the same as DVD models except that you can't store the originals directly.
Flash Media / Solid State: There are many different formats available for this category and even many digital still cameras with a good movie mode can substitute for a video camera with similar quality. Quality can vary depending on the file format used, the video/audio codecs used, and at what resolution the camera captures with. For this instance, I'll eliminate all the models that don't record SD or HD resolutions (i.e. anything lower than 640x480 at 24 or 30 fps, NTSC). As such, you have your choice of memory card used (SD, CF, MS, etc.), file format (AVI, MPG, MPEG-TS, etc.), and resolution (480i, 720p, 1080i/p, etc.). The biggest downsides are the cost of the media (even at today's prices, flash memory is still much more expensive than tape, disc, or HDDs) and the limited capacities available (although this is nearly a non-issue). Editing is trickier due to the wide variety of possible formats and codecs used. Archival storage options are the same as with HDD camcorders.
Having trouble playing back videos? I recommend: 
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Vo!D
- Joined: Mon Mar 12, 2007 3:59 pm
- Location: N-Field
wow I learned a lot !!! thanks.
so the best "for me" would be HDD or the flash media cause tape camera needs to buy a "tape" everytime I need to record and same with CD but with 3 added disavantage shock, limited storage, recording time. The only fear of HDD that I can think of is that if it gets currupted where do I buy its replacement. Flash disk is a question for me, how long is the recording time ?
so the best "for me" would be HDD or the flash media cause tape camera needs to buy a "tape" everytime I need to record and same with CD but with 3 added disavantage shock, limited storage, recording time. The only fear of HDD that I can think of is that if it gets currupted where do I buy its replacement. Flash disk is a question for me, how long is the recording time ?
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CrackTheSky
- has trust issues
- Joined: Sun Aug 27, 2006 11:01 pm
- Status: Maybe editing?
- Location: Chicago
