What is the BEST digital camera? I have kids, sports,many vacations...I want crisp quality photos. @$200-$500?

The McK's

My current camera you take a photo, & it pauses for ? seconds before u can take another photo. I am aware there is a camera that you can, snap photo after photo continuously. I just want a gooood digital camera please. I am not even sure if that camera is good or not. what has worked for you? what r u happy with? THANKS!
looking into the Nikon D40 or D50 now. A bit $$ though. amazon for $557. still would like to spend much less$. any sites? or camera similiar to that?

Answer
I purchased a Casio Exilm Ex-Z1000 about 5 Months ago and have had an absolutely wonderful experience with it thus far. At around 249$ this camera is an Awsome buy. The quality of pictures that I have been able to take, has been comparable or better than those of any Huge cameras that my freinds own. All of the exilm series camera are small, easy to use, and have great quality. The one down side to such a small camera is the lack of major zoom. However the 3x Optical zoom has proven to be more than sufficiant for any every day shots. Due to the fact that the camera is 10.1 Megapixels, i was able to take a picture of a butterfly from about 4 feet away, then later zoom in using the camera's and cropping function, was able to see in clairity the individual hairs on his body. I have traveled to both Austrialia and the Bahamas with this camera and have yet to be dissapointed in any way. It uses SD memory cards, which are widely available and at a reasonable cost. I would suggest a 1gb or more card, just due to the fact that once you start taking pictures, you will not want to stop. I purchased the Sandisk Extreme III 1GB card, which allows me to take about 230 pictures. Another nice feature of the camera is the fact that you have a decent quality video feature built into it. While i wouldn't recomend recording your child's first steps with it, it's a great feature to have for everyday use. I will be glad to show you some examples of the photo's I have taken using this camera if you would like to contact me at icyblue1986@yahoo.com I tell all of my freinds, about the nothing but wonder experience that i have had with this camera, i would certainly recommend this model. The image quality and convenience more than out weigh the lack optical zoom. I would personally recommend this camera if for no other reason than the convenience, being small allows you to have it with you and get a shot of something rare, as where the bulkier SLR cameras sit at home and collect dust. Hope this helps, Good Luck!

Digital photography camera?

Amanda Yor

I want to know what the best type of camera to get for high school armature photographers. I want a real good quality one though because I am thinking about doing something with photography for my major and I need well captured pictures for my portfolio. I would like one that can capture sports, kids, and pets but also one that is good for vacations and landscapes. I am getting it for Christmas and will be my only my only present so I want me and my parents to get our moneys worth

Answer
If you are serious about actually learning about the craft beyond your "extreme passion", you will need a camera with user adjustable settings, manual mode as well as shutter and aperture priority. I would recommend Canon Rebel T3 http://www.dzustore.com/eos-rebel-t3-ef-s-18-55mm-is.html it has HD video recording and Live View shooting.

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What is the best setting for taking sports videos of my kids on Panasonic DMC-FZ28?

Jack

I have a Panasonic DMC-FZ28 digital camera. When I video my 12 year olds soccer game, it's always very blurry unless I keep the zoom all the way out. But then I can't get any close up shots of just her or her teammates. I'd like to zoom in to some foot work or individual players doing some awesome moves or taking shots on goal. Is there a special setting that I should set the camera at to take video that is clear and close up? Any help would be appreciated.

Answer
Hi Jack, and welcome to Yahoo!Answers:

Since you are asking this in the Y!A Camcorders section, most of us here will be quick to tell you that you are using a digital photo camera that's mostly designed for still photos, with "video mode" added as a convenience feature, not a primary use.

Shooting video with a point-&-shoot or DSLR camera is always a compromise. And during video mode, very few cameras like yours have decent "Image Stabilization" (you might also be zooming into the "digital zoom" range, which makes things always look worse, detail-wise and anti-shake-wise).

For action shots or "shots on goal" I'd recommend just sticking with the Lumix's strengths in photo-mode: High Speed Burst Shooting (11-13 shots per second). And turn OFF the auto-focus feature, which is probably "hunting" during your video shots, especially when zoomed-in. It will also interfere with steady focus during action still shots. (Learn to pre-focus for the average distance to the soccer field, then you won't have focus lag to deal with.)

There is a "Sports Mode" setting on your Lumix, so if you aren't adept at manual shutter speed and exposure settings, try that first. (It probably won't help in video mode, as few still-photo cameras have sophisticated shooting mode options for video operation.)

And lastly, all non-tape digital cameras at the consumer level use high-levels of compression to store video footage, which drops over 75% of the actual frames & uses mathematical algorithms to store & rebuild "approximations" of the missing frame info. This is the main reason they produce blocky/blurry action sequences, especially with close-up detail from zoomed-in images. (Zoomed out images have more grass & sky, which is easier to compress & decompress, since the color and detail repeats so much.)

Shop around for a good new or used mini-DV format camcorder (I buy them on eBay all the time for under-$100, with careful shopping from reliable sellers). Canon sells their current HV40 (and occasionally their older HV30) camcorder for around half-price for factory refurbished models on their Shop Canon USA website. Older non-HD Canon, Sony, and JVC mini-DV models shoot even better action footage (less compression, since HD uses almost 4-times the image data) and you can still get models with 16:9 widescreen modes to fit modern HDTV set screens.

hope this helps,
--Dennis C.
 

Looking for a fairly inexpensive camcorder to video my kids?

Bella

SInce my old Sony has just recently died, I am looking into some different camcorders, but really lost at all the specifications! Should I get an HD? Looking to spend $ 150 - $ 350. Thank you!

Answer
HD camcorders interpolate the video, which means of every 25 frames of video, 4 or 5 frames are taken by the lens assembly; the other frames in between these are filled in by the camcorder inner circuitry, thus giving you not true video. It looks like this -one frame from the lens assembly, 7or 8 from the electronic circuitry, one frame from the lens assembly, 7or 8 from the electronic circuitry, one frame from the lens assembly, 7or 8 from the electronic circuitry, one frame from the lens assembly, 7or 8 from the electronic circuitry, from front to back of the video. Near impossible to edit, even when you have the Multi processor computer with the big Graphics and sound cards that is required to edit, view, watch and work with the files a HD camcorder produces.

Consumer level HD camcorders have 4 problems. 1) Blurry, fuzzy, out of focus areas closely around people in videos taken by consumer level HD camcorders. 2) Any movement, even a wave or lifting an arm, while in front of a recording consumer level HD camcorder, results in screen ghosts and artifacts being left on the video track, following the movement. Makes for bad video, sports videos are unwatchable. 3) These Consumer level HD camcorders all have a habit of the transferred to computer files are something you need to convert, thus losing your HD quality, to work with your editing software. 4) Mandatory maximum record times - 1 hour, 30 minutes, 8 minutes, 3 minutes â four different times advertised as maximum record time for some consumer level HD camcorders. No event I have ever been to is that short. Either take multiple camcorders or pack up with out getting the end of the event on video.

MiniDV is currently the most popular format for consumer digital camcorders. MiniDV camcorders are typically more affordable than their HDD and DVD counterparts. Each MiniDV tape will typically hold an hour of footage at normal recording speed and quality. MiniDV tapes are available for purchase at not only electronic and camera stores, but also at drugs stores and grocery stores, making them easy to find while your on vacation. There are literally hundreds of MiniDV camcorders available; both in standard and high-definition. And add the fact that to get a HD camcorder that could produce better video quality footage, one would have to spend in excess of $3500 for that camcorder that could produce higher quality video.

http://simplevideoediting.com/learn/part1_camcorder_choices.htm

http://simplevideoediting.com/learn/part2_connect_camcorder.htm

http://www.canon.ca/inetCA/products?m=gp&pid=1017#_030

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What is the best camcorder for web videos and kids sports?

sheila

Hi. I've been going around in circles trying to find the best reasonably price camcorder to meet my needs.
First I need to be able to shoot videos to upload to our websites. These videos would most often be shot indoors in auditoriums or conference centers and would often involve interview-style type footage so sound quality is very important as well ease in uploading to the web.

Secondly, I would love to use this same camera for home video including kids sports (i.e. football, basketball, tennis). Any help is greatly appreciated as I am not a big technology person and every time I think I've found a camera, I read something about poor low-light video or poor audio that causes me to pause.

Thanks!

Answer
The biggest difference between camcorders is mostly about how they handle low light situations. So when you pay more, you'll get better quality (most likely).

The bigger the sensor, the better it can handle low light situations. But you'll only get bigger sensor when you pay more than 1200 dollar for a camera.

Anyway what I actually wanted to say was that it's best to get an external microphone. You could get the RODE videomic for when your filming events. I would get another microphone which you can hold in your hand for the interviews. You'll get way better sound and background noise will be less loud than with the RODE videomic or your built in microphone.

The RODE videomic uses a mini-jack for the sound, if you go for a camcorder below the 1200 dollar price it will most likely have a mini-jack connector for microphones. But most hand microphones use XLR plugs. So you'll need a female xlr to male mini-jack connector. You can get those at a music store, just ask them to make one for you.

A camera which you could use is the canon HV40. It still records on tape, but tape has less compression and is easier to edit. The only problem is that when you record one hour, you'll need to play back and transfer one hour. You'll need to play back the entire tape at the normal speed. So it can take a while. But HDV is way better than AVCHD. They sometimes also use it for television. AVCHD is never used for television broadcast.

what are the best hd video cameras under $300 that record sports well in low light conditions?

jdl12321

i know that the $300 is not a lot for an hd video camera and that it won't be the greatest video quality ever, but i'm just a college kid so my funds are limited to say the least. i record tennis matches with my brother, and we usually play at night, as well as basketball games (during the day). any thoughts?

Answer
no consumer HD camera can record sports action except as a blur. that is because of the super high compression. MPEG4, AVCHD and similar codecs record only one actual frame and then throw out the next 7, giving it a GOF factor of 8. on playback the missing frames have to be guessed at by interpolation, which gives blurry jumpy results.

the solution is to use the system most widely used by action sports videographers, which is miniDV. while not HD it can be shot in the widescreen mode so the picture will fill an HDTV screen. And you can get one for under $300, look at the Canon ZR960.

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