Wish to buy Camcorder & PC to make videos

[ChrisThai]

I am a total novice. I have a Panasonic 150 video camera and a standard PC with a couple of external hard drives. 1 GB of RAM.

I am NOT familiar with jargon or abbreviations.

I made a 9 minute video for a Children's Shelter in Thailand - pretty poor stuff - but it raised nearly £4000 on the first 3 showings. (yes - I am totally amazed.)

Now I should like to go to the next stage - from sub-novice - to beginner and need some kit.
My budget is up to but not over £3000.

If there's some kind person with great patience - I would be most grateful for some guidance.

I live equally between Antwerp and Thailand

Thanks in anticipation,

Chris

[massimo]

Apple have just released new iMacs(http://www.apple.com/uk/imac/) which comes with a collection of software. One of those being iMovie(http://www.apple.com/uk/ilife/imovie/).

iMovie is fantastically easy to make movies, and once you've finished that, the iMac comes with software to author a proffessional looking DVD also.

[ChrisThai]

Thank you Massimo.
Alas I am not an Apple fan. I should have said so - my apologies.

Used to a PC and kinda stuck there.

I need to buy a camera - better than the Panasonic 150 - maybe one of these High Definition ones - anyway something which will keep abreast the big market for the next say 3 years.

In a PC - I need something which doesn't hang up when processing video. Yes I SAVE as often as possible - but it still hangs up. So I (THINK) I need something with a lot of power and memory.

I use ULead VideoStudio 11 on Vista Home Premium. I think I have the hang of most of this little program - though I do realise it is very amateur. I am trying to buy Premier Elements 3 - English version. FNAC here in Belgium doesn't sell it easily. I paid a deposit some two months ago and still wait. Well I suppose it is a slow cold swim.

Thank you Massimo,

Chris

[felix2]

Hi, Just as a brief* starter (others will I'm sure help with more details on specifics)...

I've currently got the Panasonic GS180 and use Serif MoviePlus 5 on my PC (AMD 2100XP, 1GB RAM, plenty of extra HDD space), which works very smoothly and (virtually) never crashes. For software, Ulead 11 seems to have more of a reputation for crashing for some people, and Adobe Premiere (Elements) is reckoned to require a higher spec PC than other programs. Sony Vegas Movie Studio is popular around here and very similar to Serif (with a slightly different set of features, but Serif doesn't support high definition "HD" well yet, although Movie Plus 6 is due out before long). Full Sony Vegas is also available for more £££, as is full Adobe Premiere. The other big name is Pinnacle (or Avid Liquid).

I am hopefully very soon upgrading my camera to high definition, but don't expect my current PC to be able to edit it reliably, and will probably "downconvert" in the camera back to standard definition "SD" and edit that for now.

So if you are going to need to upgrade your PC (and buy software), you'll obviously need to share the budget between that, the camera, and any accessories (unless you already have those). It doesn't take long before a bit of money spent on accessories can do more to improve your video than a bit of extra money on the camera, e.g.

- video tripod (very rough rule of thumb I'd reckon on spending say 10% of the camera value on a tripod)
- separate microphone
- light(s) (and one of those cheap, cool folding reflectors!!)
- possibly a good Wide Angle lens converter
- possibly a rain cover if you're going to be out in bad weather
...and of course a spare battery (and tapes, memory cards, bag/case, etc)!

When it comes to cameras under £2k, I suppose you might want to consider looking at things like:

High definition on mini-DV tape ("HDV" format):
- Canon consumer HV10 or its replacement HV20 (around £700)
- Sony consumer HC7 (£700-£750) or its more expensive "professional" big brother (but small sized!) A1
- Sony "prosumer" FX1 or FX7 ("little brothers" of the more expensive pro Z1 and V1)

High definition (HD) on Hard Disk (HDD) (MPEG format):
- JVC HD7

High definition (HD) on Hard Disk (HDD) ("AVCHD" format):
- Sony SR7 / SR8

High definition (HD) on flash memory cards ("AVCHD" format):
- Panasonic SD1
- Sony CX6

Or if you're really going to want the best low light picture quality - night/evening shots, indoors with low-ish lighting, etc (better than the HD cameras), one of the old "semi-pro" mini-DV tape Standard Definition cams:
- Sony VX2100 (or its big pro brother PD170)
- Canon XM2

A quick look or search at recent threads will reveal quite a bit of discussion about pros and cons of these (and other cameras, including ones I've no doubt forgotten), and of the formats.

[jetinder]

I cant help on High definition camcorders as i've just got my first £152 JVC SD camcorder and I'm still learning

Wish i had this 4 years ago in summer 2003 when Concorde was flying as i could have got priceless movies of Concorde taking off and landing. If you ever saw Concorde taking off you'll know how awsome that plane was, makes the "new" Airbus A380-hippo look "old fashioned" and very very slow.

With camcorders you could try JVC, Sony or Canon they all do High Definition ones, best thing is to go to your local camcorder shop and ask the salesman what he recommeds for around £1500, play with that in the shop and see how it feels.

Then go on the internet and see if you can get a better deal on that camcorder from a well known and respected website.

As for your PC hanging what spec is it (processor, memory etc) ?

There are many different reasons behind it hanging. It could be a viruses or spyware running in the background which are sapping the PCs resources.

Use Adware and Spybot to find these and get rid of them.

Run anti virus to clean your PC of any bugs

Buy Norton utilities or system works and use that to fix any bugs in the PC.

Defrag your hard drive to make sure its ok.

It could also be things like anti virus or firewalls running in the background which could also be sapping the PCs resources.

Before you process any video disconnect the modem so you cant access the internet.

Press CTRL + ALT+DEL keys, find out which processes are running in the background, Get rid of them and then start to process any videoes.

That way your entire PC will have all it resources for video processing and your PC should be ok.

If your going to buy a new PC get one with Intels dual core processor + as much memory as you can afford + firewire port + 2 hard drives (one as your C drive and one for video processing), make sure the video processing one is fast and 300gb or more as 1hr of raw footage from camcorder takes up around 50gb in AVI format.

If your seriouse about video processing the more space you have the better.

[senu]

The above 2 posters have covered some ground which Ill try not to duplicate
but
You will have to learn some Jargon...eventually

If your aim is to get to DVDs.. getting a Hi definition Camcorder is not a bad idea only because the HDV (tape ones) are also very good SD (Standard definition) camcorders with a bit more control on how the video will look .
High Definition via HDD or Flash card is not cheap, or suitable if you wish to do some Advanced enthusiast type shooting and editing
There is some need to be aware of simple techniques re Lighting, tripod use, Panning Zooming ( or not) and the shooting with a view to minimal editing.. Or shooting knowing right away what you may not use.
In essence shape of the final video is conceptualised even before shooting starts
I suggest you get the hang of what you want and ask "leading questions" as the whole topic is rather broad and you may get information overload!