advise for cheap digital video camera

[E-Male]

i'm looking for a cheap (very cheap) digital video camera
basicly the cheapest thing worth using

thx

[dani82]

ebay

[E-Male]

thx, now i know what to look for
i'll just type "ebay" in google and wil lfind all the infos...

seriousely, i was askign for brands and models not for shops
maybe my post wasn't clear there

[communist]

It all depends on how much you want to spend and get back in form of features etc. Do you need manual control over Iris / Focus and white balance or is it ok to settle with the Auto mode (arggg..). You should certinaly go with MiniDV (unless you have the money for HDV).
Also see these threads in the DV forum:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=85516
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=79301

[dani82]

your reply, makes my reply looks very funny (at least for me it does)

what good does a brand or model do, if you are looking for something cheap (especially if the store you go to doesn't even carry it), my advise ...well ebay, or go to 3-4 stores and do some compare-a-tif shopping


don't worry, i did the work for you:

http://search.ebay.com/cheap-digital-video-camera_W0QQsofocusZbsQQsbrftogZ1QQfromZR10QQftrtZ1QQftrvZ1QQsadisZ200QQfposZ90031QQfsopZ1QQfsooZ1

[Black Evil]

If you want some really sucky ones for cheap, walmart's got some >100$ cameras.

If you can spend 130$, though, i'd go for the HP M305, it's 130 at walmart as well, and has plenty of features for that price. I bought it a couple weeks ago and am very happy with it.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=3208776

It's out of stock at walmart.com, but they might have it at your local walmart store.

[Doobie]

You can go to WalMart and get a 2 MP camera for the price of taking a girl on a date. That's about the resolution of full HighDefinitionTV. That's much better than the sub-HDTV resolution plasma garbage stores are selling for HDTVs. Even 2 MP is over-kill for viewing pictures on a computer screen.

2MP is worth using, if you want to go cheap.

3MP is about 35mm film quality (assuming a quality camera), and can be had for under a c-note.

Optical zooms are nice but expensive, so ignore cameras with that feature if you don't need it. Digital zooms are worthless (unless, maybe, you're going from camera to printer, without a PC in between).

[Mug Funky]

umm... aren't we talking digital video here?

hmm. if there's HDTV size viddy cameras, that's definitely something. so long as it's recording on something with enough bandwidth (apparently DV tape isn't enough for full HDTV, and as a result you get less quality then if the HD was downsized and stored as SD).

[E-Male]

ok, maybe i should post some more info

-price should be below €300 [€100 would be great, but i know i won't get anything good for that]
-i don't need HD resolution
-optical zoom would be very nice, but if it's too expensive for my budget i can survive without it

main usage will be no-budget film making
just as a hobby
the image will go through post processing on my pc [i work in the film look thread with others]
audio will be dubbed, so the mic just needs to produce somewhat understandable dialoge for reference

i might be able to borrow cams at university (good ones), but if not and/or for testing shoots i'd like to get an own one

thx for all your help

[Doobie]

Originally posted by Mug Funky
umm... aren't we talking digital video here?

Oops, my bad.