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Low End High Definition or High End Standard Definition?
By Frey | December 13, 2007
A friend recently asked whether he should get a somewhat older Professional Sony Standard Definition camera (shoots DVCam) that was offered to him for under $1000. He wants to try to put some stuff on mainstream TV, etc. Below is my response:
DVCam is basically a more robust version of minidv. You won’t need a capture card with it, since it uses firewire to ingest.
TV programs like Survivorman and other reality based shows used DVcam and minidv a lot just two and three years ago. Now they have all seemed to switch over to at least HDV (as a bare minimum) since the HDV cameras are dirt cheap. A lot of the News programs still shoot SD for location shots, but HD at the studio (and their SD cameras are very nice rigs).
But it all depends on what you’re going for, really. If you want a nice, high resolution picture and don’t want to spend too much - then get a cheap HD camera. Something like Canon’s HV20 for $750 would fit the bill (does 24p, btw). It’s a tiny consumer looking camera, but you can get some nice pics with it. The only problems are that there are no manual settings and it looks cheap.
If you want a professional looking camera with a decent SD picture, then something shoulder mounted (like the DSR200A) looks nice and professional. Great for doing interviews and such. With a big shoulder mounted rig, people will take you seriously - no matter if you’re shooting a documentary, or if you’re just collecting footage on the street corner (ever notice how people walk right in front of the tourist getting a shot of a building, but not of the news camera guy getting a shot of the building?).
You can charge money to shoot someone’s wedding, industrial video, etc with a big shoulder mounted pro rig, no matter how old it is or how little you paid for it. But you can not charge money with an “El Cheapo” consumer camcorder, even if you paid a ton of money for it.
Hope that helps. Personally, I’d spend a little more and only go with HD for “future proofing” all of my work. You may not have a specific need for HD footage today, but 10 years from now you may be asked for something and you’re archives will be all HD and thusly more valuable. But, the trick is to get what you can afford. Work hard with it and only upgrade when you feel the need to upgrade - never go in debt for a camera. Spend the money you saved on getting a decent lighting kit, and filters, and a good tripod, etc…
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Topics: high definition |
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