Good picture and Video for a good price- camcorder?

Question

I am working with a fellow classmate to do a documentary. We are both 15, neither of us have a constant source of income but we do make money... still not much though.

Neither of us have a video camera that has sufficient video quality for a documentary, nor adequate sound quality.

Keeping our limited budget in mind, what is a good video camera that we can afford. It doesn't need to record at long ranges, or fast moving objects. It will be doing mostly more up close interview work. We want a good, crisp picture and good sound is a must.

How much should we expect to spend.... we are not rich, so a good value is important to us... but we would rather buy the right thing the first time instead of get a piece of junk and having to pay more in the end.

Any recommendations?

Thanks.

Answer 1

MiniDV tape.

Canon ZR800, 900 or 930.

You can connect and external mic to these camcorders. They do not have full manual audio control, but you can attach an external mic. Do not expect miracles if you record loud music.

The computer editing the video needs to have a firewire port. That is the only way to import the video from miniDV tape.

Pay attention to your lighting. Mr Safety had good information:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=OePFgmyvnWo