Open for discussion

[fabiodriven]

I'm going to have to get myself a nice camera, the phone isn't going to cut it. I don't know anything about any of this stuff so I'm coming from a fairly ignorant standpoint here.

My first thought was GoPro but I've heard of more than one person having trouble with downloading footage. Whether it was them or the machine I do not know, but simple is good to me.

I stopped in at Radio Shack and they had a "Midland" camera that looked like an overgrown GoPro and was a lot cheaper. It's 1080 as well.

There were also some Nikon cameras, just regular cameras though, and one was on sale for $80 from $110. It was a 2500 or something. There was also a Nikon for $200. Suggestions?

[Billy Golightly]

John the GoPro's are easy to get video from...they just don't play on old computers if you record in the 1080p setting because it takes a lot of computing power to play it properly. Pretty much anything that records in 1080 will be good enough. You can get a silver edition GoPro now for about $300 and they take real good video as well, I have one. Even the old original ones, or what they call the "White Edition" now a days does good footage. Pretty much everything I shot at Hernando for years was with a version 1.

[fabiodriven]

Very good William. So any kind of compact "GoPro-esque" is the way to go I'm guessing, or better than a regular camera anyways. I kind of figured that.

[Dammit!]

Best kind of camera really depends on how you intend to use it. GoPro's are awesome for action shots. They do well for just sitting in a corner and recording an entire area due to the wide FOV. Pretty durable and all that. But, they suck if you want something you can use as a traditional camcorder. The sound isn't good (much better when used out of the case but then the camera is very vulnerable). Picture quality is outstanding for what they cost though. I'm obviously a huge fan.

For filming people having conversations or anything along those lines, GoPro is not the right choice. You can pop them out of the case and get a shot here and there and occasionally have some useable sound with your footage but they're just not well suited to that task. You also have to get the camera pretty close to the person you're filming with a GoPro. No zoom and super wide FOV. Everything looks far away (this is awesome for filming in cramped quarters though, assuming there's enough light).

Photo cameras that also shoot video can produce stunningly good looking footage. A majority of what this movie will be made from will be shot on Canon DSLR cameras. However, they're the most complicated to use and cumbersome to wield on the run.

A regular camcorder is still the best way to go for a lot of different types of things. Filming your travels, filming the goings on at your camp, filming an event from the sideline, all those tasks are far better suited to some type of camcorder instead of a GoPro or photo camera. Something with a good zoom, a decent mic, a light. Those are still the most versatile. You just can't strap them to your head.

iPhones shoot incredibly good video but have major limitations. No optical zoom being a big one. Very bad rolling shutter is the other. With an iPhone it's imperative to hold it as still as possible or it will get a kind of wavy jello effect on the footage. All digital cameras do it to an extent but iPhones are pretty noticeable. Awesome for a quick shot here or there or when a shot can be staged. With a little effort you'd be shocked what can be done with them.

[Billy Golightly]

Canon has some nice refurbed camcorders on their site too - cheaper than a GoPro and like Doug said, will have zoom;

http://shop.usa.canon.com/shop/en/ca...mer-camcorders

[fabiodriven]

Ok, great guys. Certainly a lot to consider. Maybe where Steve already has the GoPro I'll look into the regular camera.

[JasonB]

I shot about 2 hours on saturday of my group doing a 250r assembly and some other junk all at once with my gopro. its been uploaded to the google drive; when Billy and Doug get a chance to look some of the vids over let me know what I could do different to help the cause!