I’m going to be participating in an event soon that is kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me, and something that is very personally meaningful. I have friends and family that will be in attendance to witness the event, and it will be fairly short (somewhere between two to five minutes for the whole thing).
The people coming along are very willing to whip out their cell phones to record the affair, but they may all be a good 100 feet or more away from me at the time. I’m wondering if it would be worthwhile to buy a (cheap?) standalone video camera for the occasion. I’ve never owned one before, and I’m not sure when I’d use it again, but I don’t know enough (or anything, really) about the quality of an HD video camera vs. what people are able to get through their iPhones or whatnot these days to make that call.
So I’m seeking your opinions. Is there a significant advantage in quality to having a handheld camera?
Much better picture quality and you generally have better optical zoom than you can with a camera phone. Lens size does matter, the bigger the lens the more light it can collect and the better the quality of the picture. If you belong to Costco or Sam’s club you can buy one to try out and then take back if you find you don’t really need it. I just one of these from Costco and it kicks butt compared to my smartphone Samsung Note 2’s camera. It’s about the same size as my phone on thicker when the lens is closed.
The video quality of phone cameras is quite good these days. In fact, Apple has shot a number of ads on the iphone. That said, camera phones are lousy at distance shooting, because they have fixed, semi-wide-angle lenses. If you are 100’ away from the action, and there are people-sized objects you are photographing, they are going to be tiny. You need a camera with a zoom lens.
I’d advise not only the dedicated video camera, but a remote microphone to go with it. Assuming that this event includes some sound that you might want to capture and that it’s not a high dive off a cliff into a lake.
Not all video cameras are equipped for a wireless microphone, but sound captured from a hundred feet away will not be recorded very well.
I hate the idea of buying a camera (or any other item) with the express intent of using it once and then returning it for a refund. Seems less than honest.
How about just renting something? Here’s one site; they show lots of DSLRs (all of which will do nice HD video recording) in the ballpark of $50/day. You can even rent a drone if you want to get beat up :).
I just bought two Canon Vixia HF-R300 camcorders from their refurbished store. I paid $139 each and thought I got an amazing deal. Now they’re down to $111!
A 32X optical zoom, excellent image stabilization, optional manual control of audio level, exposure, white balance and focus, external microphone input and a tripod mount (which is vital if you are going to be some distance away from the action).
A cell phone may have a video camera chip in it, but it is a sick joke compared to a even the cheapest real video camera. In theory, you could shoot a once in a lifetime event with the webcam above the monitor of your laptop, but it would produce the same quality as most cell phone cameras.
I have a small business shooting concert videos, and I use up to 8 cameras, and these cheap little Canon camcorders do a fine job. Like anything, knowing how to use the tool is the best guarantee of getting good results, but having the proper tool in the first place is vital.
The event is…sigh…well, hell, I’ll just say it. I’m throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at a baseball game. I don’t believe non-press are allowed to have tripods, and I’m certain they won’t allow any drones.
One of my friends who is attending is telling me she has a camcorder, but she’s not certain she’ll be able to find all the cords, so I’m still debating buying (or renting – interesting option) one myself. Even if she finds all of her stuff, it wouldn’t hurt to have more than one person recording.
Will the networks (or local news) be there?
If so, ask beforehand if you can get copies of their video or stills - they usually will do this for free or very inexpensively.
I’m nobody famous, so there isn’t going to be any media focused on me. First pitches happen at every game, and it’s a non-event unless it’s a celebrity doing it.
There is the possibility that the stadium cameras will record the event for me (these ceremonies are always displayed on the jumbotron, so I know I’ll be on camera live, at least), but I haven’t been told that, and that information may be hard to come by before it happens. So I want to have some backup in case my friends become my only option for a recording.
The eyebolt threads into the tripod fitting on the bottom of the camcorder. One end of the string ties onto the eyebolt. The other end is made into a loop. The camera operator puts his or her foot through the loop and pulls up. Adjust the length of the piece of string until camcorder is at the operator’s eye level.
Believe it or not, with some practice, you can get stable shots and even decent pans without a tripod. The ban on tripods is due to the space they take up, and this takes up no space at all.
I wouldn’t recommend renting. The rule of thumb on rental is one day’s rental fee is 10% of the purchase price. An inexpensive HD camcorder is totally worth having around, and if you get more than 10 days use out of it, you’re ahead.
The odds are pretty good that your friends camcorder is tape based, while virtually all the camcorders sold today use digital memory of some sort, usually an SD card, making them much more fool-resistant. Also, they can be set to be constantly recording, so they can save the five seconds before the record button is pressed, which can be a life-saver.
Whatever you do practice. Go to a public park and practice both your throw and the shoot.
Many walking staffs have a removable grip that happens to have a 1/4-20 threaded screw underneath. A monopod is almost as good as a tripod and most folks can justify a walking staff.
No it isn’t, it is a calculated business strategy to get people to try their products. If Costco or Sams Club was losing money they’d change the return policy. I’ve keep a few things I’ve tried out and meant to return because they turned out to be better than I expected once I used them. Nothing dishonest about it, its just a new business model that many people don’t seem to comprehend. I actually have to pay to shop there, isn’t that somehow dishonest?
No, it’s loss the manufacturers have to eat in order to get their product in Sam’s Club or CostCo. I suspect people acting in this, (IMO) unethical way are the source of the refurbished camcorders that Canon is selling at a significant discount. It’s not as if either retailer is selling “open box” returned merchandise. Nope, those opened camcorders are returned to the vendor.
Buying it and honestly being unsatisfied with it? OK. Buying it with the express intention of using it and returning it to avoid the cost of renting it? Very definitely not OK.
Then we should start another thread. But supplers to Costco and Sam Club are aware of this type of activity and accept it as part of doing business with them. If they were not still making money by playing by the rules of selling their product there then they would stop. No one is forcing them to do business in this manner. They accept it because they reach customers who would otherwise never try the product. And yes they still make damn good money on the open box return websites. Getting their product into even more peoples hands. Its called an innovative way to reach more customers when traditional methods have topped out and you still want to exoand your market share.
I guess I should feel guilty about taking more than one of the free samples of food while walking around Costco as well and live my life in shame. Not.
And yet it would be easy to enforce by changing their return policy where as policy has no affect on shop lifting. So yes, please open up another thread instead of hijacking this one to call me a theft. I accuse you of stealing the OP’s topics. Unless of course you have something to add to the OP.
My advice to the OP is still to go out and buy a video camera for the sole purpose of trying it out. You may have a good experience with the product and remember next time when you are looking for such a product; that’s the reason they allow returns. This isn’t the 1950’s.
So people, start another thread if you don’t like my advice and let the OP have his thread back.
