[Sdyer743]

Hi,

I do video reviews on YouTube of different gadgets and I'm looking for a new camcorder to improve quality. You can find my channel here.

It's for my 16th birthday presnt so because it's kind of a big landmark my parents have said I can have around £500 to spend on a camcorder.

Just wondering what you think is the best one for the money.

I would like a recognised brand, like Panasonic or Sony or some other respected electronics firm.

It needs to be able to go on a tri-pod.

Preferably it needs to perform well in low light conditions.

I use a Mac to edit my videos, so Mac compatibility would also be good. (Not a biggie, can always convert files.)

Thanks!

[Bill Bruner]

Sdyer - happy birthday! Yes, it's a big landmark.

If you edit in iMovie, I would get a Canon. iMovie has a hard time with the 1080/50p from modern Panasonic and Sony cameras (see iMovie '11 Supported Cameras chart here).

Best Canon camcorder at your price point is the £436 Canon Legria HF M52. Wi fi capable for uploading, 32GB of flash memory plus an SDXC card slot, and mic and headphone jacks (Panasonics and Sonys don't have headphone jacks at this price point).

Hope this is helpful,

Bill

[Sdyer743]

Hi Bill,

Thanks, I haven't looked at the Canon M52 before but it does look pretty good.
One thing I was wondering was wether you think a DSLR (Specifically a 550D) would do the job as well as a camcorder? You see I'm also interested in photography so I thought maybe I could kill two birds by getting a DSLR for my YouTube videos aswell.
Although if it would involve a lot of big files that would need converting for iMovie and knowledge of lots of manual settings (I have no knowledge of DSLRs currently but would love to learn) then I would be less keen.

Thanks

Sam

[12harry]

It would help if you can give some idea of the type of Vids to plan for YT. [EDIT: Oops you review gadgets!]....In general the definition isn't great and if you plan tutorials (in a studio?) then things like lighting and audio are quite easily arranged.
[EDIT: You will need to find a quiet-area . . . somethiing that isn't often so easy!]
However, if you later want to do wildlife (esp. birds) then a powerful zoom is necessary and a solid tripod (you mentioned tripod, is this why?).
[EDIT, OK, it's for the studio. However you may need to think about more than a tripod so the camera can close-in on some feature (or an Outdoors Demo, even), but you can add fancy support-gear later.]

That Canon looks good, but it's not a Brand that features here often - although a respected Make ( esp. in Pro-circles), it boasts a 10x zoom which is good for learning serious filmmaking, but not for wildlife. IMHO.
Look for Manual Focus as a table-top presentation needs to stal focussed and "auto" has a habit of shifting just when it shouldn't.

Hope that hasn't added to confusion - it's late here.....

[Sdyer743]

Originally Posted by 12harry

it boasts a 10x zoom which is good for learning serious filmmaking, but not for wildlife. IMHO.
Look for Manual Focus as a table-top presentation needs to stal focussed and "auto" has a habit of shifting just when it shouldn't.

Hope that hasn't added to confusion - it's late here.....

Thanks Harry. With regards to the zoom and focus I've now been strongly considering the Panasonic FZ150. Although it isn't a camcorder, do you think it would be suitable for videomaking? One of the things that drew me to it was like a camcorder you can attach an external mic.

As I mentioned earlier I'm also quite interested in photography so in the long run this would be a good camera to get used to manual type settings if I get a DSLR in the future (and of course it's a very good camera itself for photography).
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks

[Bill Bruner]

Sdyer - I have the £393 Panasonic FZ150 - it is a fabulous camera for video and stills - the price is certainly better than the £436 Canon HF M52 - and I usually recommend 1080/50p Panasonic video products, but not to people who edit in iMovie.

Something else to be aware of if you ever plan to record for more than 30 minutes - for EU tax reasons, the FZ150 has a 30 minute recording time limit in the UK and Europe.

Hope this is helpful,

Bill

[Sdyer743]

Thanks Bill! I certainly am getting very drawn to the FZ150. With regards to the iMovie thing, I know that iMovie doesn't support AVCHD but it does support MP4 (and I read somewhere that the FZ150 records in both MP4 and AVCHD). Can you confirm this?

Thanks

[G5amo]

Originally Posted by Bill Bruner

Sdyer - happy birthday! Yes, it's a big landmark.

If you edit in iMovie, I would get a Canon. iMovie has a hard time with the 1080/50p from modern Panasonic and Sony cameras (see iMovie '11 Supported Cameras chart here).

Best Canon camcorder at your price point is the £436 Canon Legria HF M52. Wi fi capable for uploading, 32GB of flash memory plus an SDXC card slot, and mic and headphone jacks (Panasonics and Sonys don't have headphone jacks at this price point).

Hope this is helpful,

Bill

Sort of with Bill :-) I have the Canon M52 and am very happy with it.

Had great advice on this forum when choosing.

16 eh! Congratulations! Don't ever let anyone take the you out of you

[andysm]

Don't forget that youtube converts all video to 30p. If you upload 50i/p or 25p the result can be a little jerky. For youtube I would suggest a camera that can capture 30p.

[12harry]

Some camcorders boast Upload to YouTube (the HD footage is downgraded in-camera), so is this still 25p I wonder - and presumably PAL as well.

Grief, isn't it time the World had one digital standard!!!

[rogs]

Originally Posted by andysm

Don't forget that youtube converts all video to 30p. If you upload 50i/p or 25p the result can be a little jerky. For youtube I would suggest a camera that can capture 30p.

Not exactly what You Tube themselves say?...Advanced encoding specifications - YouTube Help

They say best to upload 24fps at 24 fps, and 30 fps at... well ... 30fps.

So 25fps at 25fps seems like a good idea too!..

Certainly never noticed any 'stuttering' --or loss of sync -- or change in pitch (my videos had music in them) -- with my 25fps uploads.

So i think I'll stick with You Tube's recommendations and stick to the original frame rate....

Now, the best way of uploading audio... well, that's a whole new ball game!....