What Video or Still Camera Do You Use?

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by El Vagabundo

For video I would for sure direct anyone to the SANYO Xacti VPC-CA9

There is no better camera on the market for the 100 bucks you pay for it!

Where?

$300 plus is the best I have found

[El Vagabundo]

Problem with the company is they take too long....took me 6 months to get my camera... I cant imagine how long the cheaper Scarlet will take...everybody is waiting on that camera... I have never had problems with overheating.. Maybe Il wait on the scarlet... Hmmm

[Chipg]

Originally Posted by El Vagabundo

Problem with the company is they take too long....took me 6 months to get my camera... I cant imagine how long the cheaper Scarlet will take...everybody is waiting on that camera... I have never had problems with overheating.. Maybe Il wait on the scarlet... Hmmm

Jim Jannard said they will make a Scarlet release announcement before the end of this month. I have seen footage from it.

I'd wait and expect a lot less production delays this time around, they learned their lesson last time.

We will know soon but you will be soooo much happier with a Scarlet on a boat over a Red.

[blueayes]

Any opinions for using a Nikon D90 for cruising shots??

[maxingout]

We used a Nikon D70 for the last half of our circumnavigation and were pleased with the results. You can check out our Trinidad carnival pictures which were shot with the D70. Carnival 1 Carnival 2 Carnival 3

Later on we picked up a Nikon D2X in the Virgin Islands and a D300 in the USA. All of our Nikon cameras have been great.

When we shot our video, The Red Sea Chronicles, we used a Canon XL1.
Here are pictures of our present cameras.

The Nikons have been very reliable. The Canon video camera is great, but the tape transport mechanism is troublesome at times.

[Chipg]

Originally Posted by blueayes

Any opinions for using a Nikon D90 for cruising shots??

I have seen some awsome stuff done on the D90, D70, D40. For really good results upgrade the kit lens to some nice glass and your camera will amaze you on what you thought it could do.

Here's the thing, I have seen pros use a $300 cam and take better pics than a non pro using a $2500 cam.

Lots of people are what I like to call measurebators because they have to have the newest and greatest cam, remember content is key!

I'm a firm believer in getting the shot and that said having a small pocket cam for $200-$300 with you is so much better that not getting a shot at all from having a big camera you don't want to cary everywhere, it gets old quick.

Lots of people here seem to have a cheap $300ish pocket cam and a nice bigger dslr for the travel magazine cover type sunset shot. Probably the route I'll go since I already have some bigger dslr's.

I do not own a small pocket cam yet but have been leaning towards a Panasonic GH1, bigger than a pocket cam, it's a dslr but half the size of my Canon 5Dii dslr, it takes awesome HD video in 1080 or 720, it is avchd so the video needs to be converted to another format for easy editing if you don't have a high horsepower computer. But with this cam it might be the best of both worlds for me so I can leave a video cam at home and just use this for a stills / video cam.

[Tom Spohn]

If you like the idea of a small go anywhere shock resistant, waterproof camera that also takes good pics and video look at the Panasonic DMC-ts1.
Olympus Tough 8000 vs. Panasonic TS1 vs. Fujifilm Z33WP in Waterproof Shootout

[Stillraining]

That aint no pocket camera...1500.00....talk about measurebater....Just kidding..just kidding..

Nice work you guys at your day jobs cool video's...its amazing the depth of knlowalge and talent brought to the table on these forum's...gets intimidating to post sometimes.

EL V..How the heck do you upload that quality to U tube..I cant do it..

[El Vagabundo]

Originally Posted by Stillraining

That aint no pocket camera...1500.00....talk about measurebater....Just kidding..just kidding..

Nice work you guys at your day jobs cool video's...its amazing the depth of knlowalge and talent brought to the table on these forum's...gets intimidating to post sometimes.

EL V..How the heck do you upload that quality to U tube..I cant do it..

Its all in the compression, I use a Mac so I work with Final Cut pro to edit and compressor, PM me and I can give you a tutorial real fast... Its easy...

[El Vagabundo]

Ill stay on the subject here and still answer a couple of post I saw..

It always makes me laugh when I see people that say "Content" is the key or that you can take great shots with a pinhole camera. that is true when professionally speaking... But some people have no idea about "content", the rule of thirds, lighting or even what half the buttons do on a camera.

D40,70,80,200,300 all have pretty much the same sensor, the difference is in the buttons and functions, a d200 or 300 you see the button and press it, on the other models you have to press a series of buttons to get your desired function. most digital cameras all have the same functions but the Nikon product has some awesome features that most "Hobbyist" wont know about.

Those "Automatic" functions on cheaper cameras SUCK, the reality of of all is that you have to tell the camera what you want in order for it to shoot what "Your" eyes see.

IF YOU PAID 5 BUCKS FOR IT EXPECT THE SAME QUALITY OF PHOTOS. unless of course you understand the particular cameras strong and weak points. If the camera shoots well in low light or the white balance always leans towards the warmer side etc...

If you just want to point and shoot but still get good results you need a good camera and decent glass. I have never liked the canon line but the glass is great, If you buy a Canon or Nikon stick with Canon or Nikon Glass. If you buy that cheaper glass expect some really soft crappy shots. Unless of course you want that effect.

What you will be using your camera for is what really needs to be considered here. it would be rude and out of pocket to suggest you get the cheapest "waterproof" camera on the market if you plan on submitting to magazines. I've shot with a 30,000 dollar hasselblad with a digital back for magazine shoots, mostly Medium format stuff. but that would be over kill for the blogger,Facebook, Twitter crowd.
Bottom line.. Nikon or Canon with the corresponding glass, 50mm 85mm 150mm and a 300mm for those great Dolphin shots.... thats a nice rounded bag! add a monopod,rubber and waterproof enclosure ... if you want to really dazzle um add a flash and that should be good for any CRUISER bag. If you are in fact in the "BUSINESS" then you wouldn't need the advice from this thread anyways.

also dont count out the old iPhone for some kool flicks. I use it for my backup camera and also have the Navionics charts for a GPS which also uploads pictures and your position to facebook.

EL V

[Chipg]

Stillraining,

Most the cheap video editing programs don't have very 'good' compression that's needed to make a high quality video in a small file size for the internet, another reason to spend a little more and also try to find a used one on eBay.

If your camera shoots interlaced video you should deinterlace it for the internet or you'll see lines through it, computer monitors scan in a progressive format so if you have a 60i (i = interlaced) setting on your camera you will be better off with 24p or 30p (p = progressive) for the internet. 60i is fine for a dvd you burn to watch on a tv set and so is 24p or 30p, 60i is the news / reality tv look, 24p is the movie look but has a lot of strobing if you move the camera around fast so for a guy on a boat shooting a travel video with lots of movement and making internet videos 30p is probably the best way to go IMO. If your camera only shoots 60i don't run out and buy a new one you can remove the interlacing with decent editing software and convert it to 30p, just check your output settings in your editor.

I have a feeling by the end of this thread everyone will be taking sweet videos and pictures

[Chipg]

Originally Posted by Stillraining

That aint no pocket camera...1500.00....talk about measurebater....Just kidding..just kidding..

Nice work you guys at your day jobs cool video's...its amazing the depth of knlowalge and talent brought to the table on these forum's...gets intimidating to post sometimes.

EL V..How the heck do you upload that quality to U tube..I cant do it..

Thanks No, I'm not here to be a measurebator, I want to leave most (I will be editing on a boat) my work behind when on a boat in a EASY no stress way or atleast I want to make it as simple and as fun as I can.

Here's the thing for me, with the GH1 I can use it for a still dslr, it's about half the size of my pro dslr (that I want to leave at home), it shoots awesome video so I can leave behind my pro video cameras that are very large and a pain in the arse to use on a boat.

A 'consumer' video cam will cost around $800, a 'comsumer' dslr will cost around $700 so I get both for the same price in a smaller package than a D70 or my 5Dii. Battery life is really good so my kit would be the GH1, 1 or 2 extra batterys and maybe 1 or 2 extra lenses, polarizer, some filters, a really small carbon fiber tripod that can get wet and an underwater housing, I want to keep it small, light weight and simple. The audio (from the cheap internal mic) isn't very good but they make an external mic for it that makes it better than most consumer camcrders.

I did not shoot this video but here is a link to see how awesome it looks, it's a sample travel video from Italy, also look at his other videos (on the right side of the page) they are all shot with this camera, Panasonic GH1.

Highlights of Italy HD on Vimeo

Sounds like people have a lot of camera gear on their boats, it's what I'm trying to avoid but will supplement this with a small $200-$300 pocket cam, probably a waterproof one.

[Tropic Cat]

I've used a Canon EOS digital Rebel for a few years and not only does it take great photos (see my web site), it survived a lightning it to the boat in perfect working order.

For me that says it all.

[anglooff]

I recently bought a Panasonic DMC-FX37K 10MP Digital Camera to replace a somewhat battered fujifilm camera.A friend of mine is a professional photographer and his advice was buy the lens not the camera and recommeded the above as it has a leica lens and interesting features for a smaller/pocket camera. There were considerable deals on refurbished-year guarantee deals and I bought mine for around $170USD with an 8MG card and extra battery.

I must say I have been extremely impressed with its performance to date and highly recommend it.

Regards

Alan

[Stillraining]

Wow!..very impressive..that guy has an eye as well...Question.. you think he uses a tri pod for everything or is there an awsome VR built into that camera...everything looks so rock solid.

Oh and by the way thanks for making me re-thinki my kit now...dang nab you anyway..