Video Cameras - Which ones to buy?

We are looking at replacing our some of our old stock of Video Camera's which we lend out to staff/students. I am trying to move away from the dreaded DVD disk ones which we currently have a few of and move to Hard Drive ones. I have a couple of sony Handycam's which work nicely but does anybody else have any recommendations for Video Camera's? I would prefer hard disk based (or even memory card) but would like the client computers not to need any 3rd party software (like flip cameras).

Any suggestions welcome.

Toby

What editing software are you using.

We have some Sanyo Xaci cams which are quite neat, but only record in the MP4 format which isn't supported natively by media player or windows movie maker. We have Serif Movie plus so this isn't a big issue for us.

We also have some Canon FS100 which record in an MPEG format, the annoying thing is they save their files with a .MOD extension which trips up media player, changing the extension to AVI sorts this. I've made a little widget in AutoIT so students can change the extension.

Did you come up with an easy way of deploying the codec for using those MPEG files?

To use them in WMM you have to install FFDshow and turn on the option in movie maker, must be an easier way to do it then me installing on all the machines in the school yesterday

Try one of these:

Kodak ZX1

£40 at Amazon - kids love them.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg

Quote:

---

We have some Sanyo Xaci cams which are quite neat, but only record in the MP4 format which isn't supported natively by media player or windows movie maker

---

They are in Windows 7 :) Yeah, but I'd go with solid state and ditch tape.

Should have mention we are going to use Sony Vegas movie studio for editing along with movie maker

Quote:

---

Did you come up with an easy way of deploying the codec for using those MPEG files?

---

Yes i did - used k-lite codec pack with the silent install script guide shown here

Did you see the Gadget Show when they tested HD cameras. The Panasonic HDD camera couldn't handle the strain of doing a loop in a stunt plane. The solid state Sony and Canon were fine. You haven't mentioned the all important budget.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by laserblazer

Did you see the Gadget Show when they tested HD cameras. The Panasonic HDD camera couldn't handle the strain of doing a loop in a stunt plane. The solid state Sony and Canon were fine. You haven't mentioned the all important budget.

---

That's because depending on the right camera that works the budget will cover! probly £300 and below - the sonys i have are around 250 ish but depenind on whats out there.

I wouldn't advise an HD camera because the computing power required to edit. OK, you can downscale but it's a pain. We have some HDD cameras that get filled up and nobody know if the stuff is needed or not. My recommendation would be a card based camera and give cards to each group or department for their use. That way, when they have finished shooting, they can remove the card and the camera is available for other users.

I have a Canon Legria HF-S100 which is great and this is from the same stable.

Canon Legria FS306 SD Camcorder - Silver - Jessops

I would go with the Kodak cameras as well, we run about 60 in our school, they are very easy to use, so easy in fact that teachers do their own uploading and editing of work, basic point and shoot,

we are using the Veho Kuzo here, and as long as you don't let them go flat they seem fine.

If it's for the kids then cheapest possible. If it's for filming school events we just got a Canon HF-R306 and it's awesome. Battery life isn't brilliant but with a 31x optical zoom it's quite punishing so buy a larger battery too, BP-727 is about £90 and i'd also plump for an off camera charger CG-700 about £20 on top of the original purchase price of the camera. Also you'll need some decent SD cards I got a couple of Class 10 32GB ones