[toetag]

Well I finally blew the dust off of the wallet and got a beginners camcorder. It is a sony and after the reviews i have read from its release date it appears it contends with a lot of higher priced minidv cams. Its only a digital8? I have no clue about this stuff, but its got a lot of buttons and makes cool menu noises so i am sure i will be having fun playing with it.

By any chance does anyone have one of these thing? and maybe some links for beginners on how to film porns? Just kidding! anyway if someone can steer me in the right direction

I looked around online and the cheapest they had it was at walmart, but they were sold out, so i spent 10.00 or so more dollars at best buy.

I only wanted to spend 250.00 but i wanted to have 2 major things.

1) image stabilization


2) USB 2.0 compliance.

I looked just about everywhere and if you included shipping with the purchase it would have been more than retail.(i am sure there was some place that could have had it cheaper, but i could not find it, except refurbs)

I was so mad that I had to spend more than i wanted to because Best Buy had an online price of 249.00 for a JVC model that had Firewire, but when i called to see if they had it in stock becaus the online price was out of stock, the would not match the online price from their own website. So i ended up going to about 6 different places and everywhere i went (for the exception of walmart) the service i was getting sucked.

I do not expect to have my but kissed, but when i ask a straight forward question like (Could you please point me to all of the camcorders that are USB 2.0 compliant?) and there are about 50 different cams with little info tags, and i get a response like, "They all are usb 2.0 compliant" i am gonna walk out.

Thats just what i did at circuit city. Before i walked out i made him prove to me that they were. He was looking at me like i was stupid. But after i forced him to show me that he was wrong and watched him get embarrased, i said, i will spend my money elsewhere and walked out.

I know i was an ass to him, but i could have spent money on the wrong thing and had to have returned it etc...

Either way, I am pretty sure that i got the right device for the money i spent, but was hoping that someone else has some knowledge or advice regarding the thing.


Here is the link:

http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTE...rders#features

[Drayu]

Congrats on the new camera. It is a good choice. I have a sony trv720, it is a little more than 4 years old. With that said, I love it! It is a digital8 as well, but that isn't a problem because there is no image difference between a digital8 and a MiniDV, if I recall, the max resolution for each was exactly the same (don't want to admit it, but I used to work at Circuit City). The only way to get a better pic is to buy a camcorder that is 3ccd or megapixel. Why did you want usb2.0 and not firewire?

As for making movies, I do it all the time. Here are a few good hints:

1. Make sure it is BRIGHT, or when you transfer it to computer you WILL lose image quality. You will see pixel boxing and colors that bleed together (this problem would be the same on a minidv)
2. Screw image stabilization and get a tripod
3. Shoot ALOT of video and edit it later
4. Get a good transfer program, cause it will affect image quality
5. Get a good editing program, make sure it has Chromakeyer capablity. (you may not use it at first, but you may want it later)
6. Plan to spend 5-10 hours of editing per hour of final footage at first, and then not much less after that unless you are making VERY basic movies. I like to add in LOTS of transitions and sound effects.
7. Render the movie in the BEST quality you can! (this takes an ENORMOUS amount of time, for my last 2 hour movie I believe it took 8-10 hours, I went to bed after I started it)
8. AND THE MOST IMPORTANT THING......WYSIWYG (What You Shoot Is What You Get) Shit is Shit :/

[toetag]

I have been reading some articles that indicate that usb 2.0 is currently faster when transfering data. I want usb for that reason, bit more so because i really do not want to buy a firewire card. I know they are cheap, but i do not want it if i do not absolutley have to have it.

[Drayu]

that's kewl. I don't know how involved you want to get with editing, but here are some good editors (authoring is different).

1. Video Explosion Deluxe
2. Pinnacle STudio 9 (don't go with anything less than the newest version b/c they were WAY too buggy, and I believe it comes with a decent dvd authoring program)
3. Sony Vegas (high end kick ass)