I bought a Panasonic NVG230 during the Argos so-called sales at £266.
I’m very happy with. It’s fantastic camcorder for that price. I had a chance to use more professional camcorder such as a Panasonic DVX100. So I was expecting their 3CCD technology even on a very small CCD (1/6") to give good results. And it does. In fact I will never ever go back to a cam with only a single CCD unless if it’s very big.
The widescreen was also an important feature because it teach you to compose in a better way your shooting. A rectangle is better than a square.
I disagree with some post mentioning the Pana 230 is not a true widescreen. In fact it is and it’s very simple to prove it: when you shoot on 16:9 you do have more pixels on the left and on the right and the picture is recorded into an anamorphic format compatible with widescreen screens.
However if you activate the cinema mode then the picture is cropped on the top and bottom. Stay away from the Cinema setting but do activate the 16-9 (widescreen) setting.
At that stage you lose the stabilization. It’s because the extra pixels used before for the stabilization are now used for the 16:9 feature.
That’s not a big deal. In fact I think it’s better.
That’s because the stabilization is electronic and not optical so it doesn't deliver good results. It’s like a digital zoom, stay away from it. Just move closer to your subject.
However a nice touch on the Pana is you have the zoom connected with the microphone. So you actually pick the sound closer to the subject without moving. As a result you get a better sound. As sound is at least 50% of what makes a film a film, anything that make the recording of the sound better is good. Hence the possibility to plug an external microphone is also important.
Two other features required for me are the ability the turn off the red lamp while recording and having the possibility to set-up manually the white balance.
The problem with those small camcorders is to stay firm while you shoot.
You do have to learn to shoot properly. And yes, it’s hard, it require practice.
However there is some tips to make a shoot way better. Don’t take them too seriously, I’m not a pro. They’ve just helped me to do way better video that actually my friend and family enjoy watching. The previous tapes are still in their cases and we very rarely watch them.
First : don’t move, compose.
Make sure the arm is close to your body and hold your elbow with your second hand.
Do not breath, do not talk, do not move too much and don’t play with the zoom. Do not tilt (moving up/down) or pan (moving left/right), those require extreme skill because they have to be fluid and slow. Without a tripod they are almost impossible.
As a rule of thumb what’s your filming is already moving enough. If you move with your camera too much you’re just giving headache to the viewer.
The only reason you want to move with your camera is to pick up the sound because the mic is attached to the camcorder. Then when you’re going to cut your video you can keep the sound and replace the crap footage by something else (a photo, another scene).
Anyways Composition is the key of any good footage.
That’s why 16:9 / widescreen is very good. Rectangles are better than squares to tell a story.
As strange as it may sound, while filming you’re becoming a spectator.
The first one of your film. You do not take part of the event you’re filming.
That’s why I never try to film all the time because I want to enjoy the birthday of my daughter as much as she does.
Second tip: move!
By using a £20 DIY steadycam.
I can only recommend this link:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/steadycam/
or google the words “DIY steadycam“
With a steady cam you have to learn to “glide”. It means walking like Michael Jackson. I think it’s called moonwalking.
There is no secret here: practice again and again.
So by learning how to not move, to observe (composing) and sliding you got better chances to make interesting videos.
My last tip is asking yourself why you want to pick up the camcorder.
Decide before taking your camcorder what you want to film.
Don’t try to capture that “special moment” because there are too many. By trying too capture everything you end up recording only crap.
The best way I found is to focus on one emotion.
Obviously we want to film happy people. It’s a good start and not that easy because not everybody is always happy. Some don’t want to be filmed. Others play fool. What you want is just honest emotions. That’s why being almost invisible is good. But at least on focusing on one emotion you know what your doing.
For a birthday you might want to focus on the surprise.
You can focus on the joy of having something new like your son having his funny new red light shoes and jumping up and down.
Then you realize to capture those emotions, filming people opening their presents under the tree is not the best moment and place.
Anyways, after 3 hours of editing, those 30mn shootage become short clips of 3mn. They are memorable and nobody yawns!
Disclaimer:
« Nothing in the above is to be construed as advice or applicable to any purpose whatsoever. It may be random monkies typing as far as the Einstein of the universe is concerned. »
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