Advice on what camcorder to get?

[sage]

I really want to be able to analyze my strokes and hopefully send it in, so I was thinking of getting a camcorder. But I don't want to rush into buying a low quality camera. I don't know much about camcorders so I was wondering if you could help me out. My price range depends on whether its really worth it or not. I'm not interested in too many features, though i don't mind, what I really want is one with nice quality videos, and a good shutter speed, along with miniDV format so I can send it in.

I was thinking about this one but I'm not sure if the quality is good enough to analyze strokes with, again I don't know much about camcorders so for all I know it could be great quality.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?CategoryID=pcmcat21300050021&id=1099390045554&skuId=6988423&type=product&DCMP=KNC-TLC&ref=25&loc=PGR

[tennisman1]

Camcorder

I'm no expert, but Canon and Sony make very good camcorders. You want to make sure the one you are buying has a sports mode. I got lucky and my $600 Canon had one, where my friends top of the line Sony did not. I go to Amazon and read the reviews by purchasers and then try to buy the best one for the amount of money I can afford. Amazon has very good prices, free delivery and no tax. Also JandR in N.Y. is very good with pricing and delivery.

[will2campb]

Camcorder Recommendation

I would recommend one of the Panasonic 3 CCD mini-dv camcorders. I bought the Panasonic PV-GS200 about a year ago. I have taken numerous videos of my son, William. He appears in the September 2005 "Your Strokes." I took the video with the Panasonic. The advantage with this camcorder is that you can manually set the shutter speed. I stop the action at 1/500 which allows me to see exactly what is going on with technique. The model I bought is probably discontinued, but all of the Panasonic 3 CCD units are excellent.

[maverick1]

I have the Sony HDR-HC3. It is relatively expensive(just over $1000 street price, higher at Sonystyle.com), but it is a high definition camcoder, and it has one really useful feature - called smooth slow motion or something like that, it allows you to record a 3 second event at 240 fields per second and play it back in slow motion. It is perfect for analyzing your strokes, although you almost certainly need another person to use this feature. You could try it alnoe using a tripod and remote control, but I think that would distract from your stroke.

BTW, there are cheaper, non-HD Sony camcorders with this slow motion feature.

I don't think it has the shutter speed control like teh Panasonic mentioned above. But faster shutter speed means less light exposure and poor quality. If the light is excellent, the automatic exposure camcorders will use a fast shutter speed anyway.

[johnyandell]

Uh, no faster shutters give more clarity and are great in almost all outdoor light.And the auto setting usually don't have a fast enough shutter to really freeze things. Sony VX 2100 is an example of a camera here that has 3 chips high shutters and manual exposure control. It is about $2500.


Question on the 240 frames--how clear is that resolution, and is it "shuttered"? If you go to the contact point, is the definition of the racket ultra sharp or a little blurry?

[maverick1]

Uh, no faster shutters give more clarity and are great in almost all outdoor light.And the auto setting usually don't have a fast enough shutter to really freeze things. Sony VX 2100 is an example of a camera here that has 3 chips high shutters and manual exposure control. It is about $2500.


Question on the 240 frames--how clear is that resolution, and is it "shuttered"? If you go to the contact point, is the definition of the racket ultra sharp or a little blurry?

Well, the VX2100 is almost a professional camcorder. It is massive, and I am sure it has a big enough lens to capture enough light at fast shutter speed.
With a small consumer camcorder, is there much point to increasing the shutter speed beyond the automatic level under bright light? I don't know the answer. I just have my doubts.

I want to be careful about the "240 frames". Sony seems to want to mislead slightly. They say something like "240 fields per second instead of the regular 60 fields per second". I think there are 2 fields to a frame. We know for sure that regular footage is 30 frames per second, so I think the 240fps is really 120 frames per second.

Because it requires another person to operate, I only used this feature once, when the light was pretty good, but not the best possible. I remember that there is a slight blur, and the frozen frames don't quite look like the ball and racket are still. Unfortunately I think I taped over that footage, I will try to record some tonight(indoors) and post. If someone can post footage from a cmacorder with a manually selectable high speed consumer camcorder, we can compare the two. I might get outdoor footage this weekend if the weather is half-decent.

[shootermcmarc0]

Have you tried capturing and uploading a clip from your new camera onto your computer yet? I'd like to see the quality of it.

[mntlblok]

Jvc Gr D370us

JVC GR D370US MiniDV

This camcorder is less than $250 and can be manually set on 1/4000 of a second shutter speed. While the video will come out a bit dark in conditions other than bright sunlight, typical video manipulation software can lighten it for you enough to see what you're looking for. It still uses the typical 30 frames per second.

For about 100 bucks more there's another model that will do 1/10,000 of a second shutter speed.

Kevin
Savannah

[maverick1]

Have you tried capturing and uploading a clip from your new camera onto your computer yet? I'd like to see the quality of it.

I didn't see this before. If you are asking me, I just posted a video(& stills) for my serve in another thread(http://www.tennisplayer.net/bulletin...read.php?t=736)

The video is highly compressed and may have lost some quality, but the stills retain original quality. I captured them from the video as it was captured on the computer. Keep in mind this is at night under lights. Light is much more important than technology for camcorders. A $250 camcorder in bright daylight will produce better quality than the most expensive camcorder in the world at night.

I still haven't had a chance to try the slow motion feature. That needs daylight, and an extra person to operate the camcorder.

[maverick1]

I took a lesson with Eric of this forum a couple of days ago, and I would like to say that the camcorder he used (Panasonic PV-GS150, which he tells me has been replaced with the PV-GS300) is a far better option for sports action videos than my Sony HDR-HC3. J&R(they have a good reputation) is selling an "open box" GS150 for $330.

That camcorder costs about a third of my Sony, and has shutter speed control and 60fps mode.
Even though we were indoors, I could see each frame clearly(though darker than it would be at slower shutter speeds). There was no blur when we froze frames.

My Sony has no shutter control, and even in broad daylight, the automatic exposure is so long that each frame has blur. But the High definition picture , even when shot in relatively poor light, looks awesome if you watch it at regular speed or even slow motion. Just don't expect to see the ball clearly if you freeze a frame.

[shootermcmarc0]

thanks for the info, i'm gonna wait until the day after xmas to make my move....