# Video Camera Recommendation — need fast **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 24, 2014, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-camera-recommendation-need-fast/686859 "2014-04-24T13:06:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-camera-recommendation-need-fast/686859/1 "2014-04-24T13:06:23Z")
My daughter is very proficient with both a still camera and a video camera. She wants to do animation, but neither of our video cameras can do single-frame. Can anyone recommend a good singe-frame-capable video camera? I’d like to stay under $200. (Hell, I’d _like_ to stay under $100.) And I have to order it today (Thursday) because her birthday is Saturday and we’re crappy parents who don’t plan ahead. Thank you for your help. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-camera-recommendation-need-fast/686859/2 "2014-04-24T13:32:39Z")
You don’t need a camera that shoots single frames and records them to video natively - just use a digital camera and join the frames up using software. That’s not only simpler, it’s better. If you mis-shoot a frame and it’s committed to the middle of a video file, it’s much harder to correct. If it’s just one of many digital images, you just delete it before stitching the sequence together. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_York](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f6c823/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_York](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_York)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-camera-recommendation-need-fast/686859/3 "2014-04-24T13:56:55Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > You don’t need a camera that shoots single frames and records them to video natively - just use a digital camera and join the frames up using software. > > That’s not only simpler, it’s better. If you mis-shoot a frame and it’s committed to the middle of a video file, it’s much harder to correct. If it’s just one of many digital images, you just delete it before stitching the sequence together. I used to use Womble for that type of thing, but there are many others. ---
**Author:** ![Ornery\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/da6949/32.png) [@Ornery\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ornery_Bob)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-camera-recommendation-need-fast/686859/4 "2014-04-24T14:28:53Z")
Yeah, it’s a software thing. Pretty much any video editor will let you import pictures as frames, even freeware like Windows Movie Maker. All forms of animation have benefited greatly from the move to digital. You can even shoot “normal” video and then once that video is in the editor, grab whichever frames of it you want. I have a friend who made a short animation by just recording the scene continuously. He would set up the shot, take his hands away for a second and then go right to the next shot. In the editor, he deleted the frames he didn’t need, like those with his hands in them, and turned a “movie” into an animation, all in the editor. ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-camera-recommendation-need-fast/686859/5 "2014-04-24T15:53:52Z")
:smack: :smack: :smack: Thank you so much! I’m ashamed that I didn’t think of that.