Video Camera

[Ron Fox]

Looking to upgrade on a video camera. I am partial to Sony. I will mostly use it for my daughters sports games but will also you it for everyday use when needed. At the moment I have a small, 4 or 5 year old Flip camera which works nice but I now need more out of a camera like more zoom, longer batter life, low light shooting (inside for basketball games), etc.

What options do I need to look for or have? SB slot a plus?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

[Evan Iroc-Z]

That is going to depend on a lot of things. If you have a nice home theater setup (4K TV) and you are OK spending a little money, Sony just announced at CES an $1,100 4K camcorder to be released in March. Typically these things go for $2K or more, so that price point is amazing. The model number is HDR-AX33 if you want to look up information on it. The problem is if you don't have the other items to show that amazing video, there is no real reason to buy it.

Now if you are looking for something a little more "down to earth" Sony has a full range of camcorders that are nice. The ones built today are going to be all flash memory since tapes are so "outdated".

The HDRPJ275 is going to be a high definition camcorder with a 8gb of built in memory memory. I have owned several Sony camcorders and they do an excellent job of low light shooting. The batteries last a pretty long time, so recording a game will not be an issue. The nice thing about this one is it has a 27x optical zoom. Digital zoom has gotten a lot better over the years, but optical is still the best way to go. This is slightly better than the more expensive version.

There are other features, but nothing earth shattering since most every one of them has the same things.

[Sieg]

Based on Costco's website listings camcorders appear to be a dieing breed. They offer 2 Canons at $189 and $229. Most Point & Shoot digital cameras or DSLR cameras all shoot video now. What I observed at SEMA was most the low end 'pros' were shooting with DSLR's or off the chart expensive digital video cameras.

To be blunt any modern day smartphone's video camera will smoke a four year old Flip camera. My wife had one and it was terrible IMO.

I'd suggest looking at B&H Photo and read the consumer reviews: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Camcorders/ci/1871/N/4294548093

If you don't have a good still camera and want one I'd look at the lower priced Canon or Nikon DSLR because they do both still and video well.

[GregWeld]

I have a Nikon D7000 that does video.... and I've used it for video. Here's my personal issue with a DSLR camera and shooting video. I can't remember the settings to make it shoot video because I don't use it often enough. It's not a one click pony. So if I was buying a new camera -- I'd be looking at it's operation function buttons to see if they're simple to switch modes.

If I just wanted to shoot video -- the GoPro TYPE cameras work great - EXCEPT there's no zoom... they're a one trick pony.

[BMR Sales]

GoProV

[Ron Fox]

I have a Nikon D5000 that has video but the limitations are that videos are limited to 5 minutes in length or a maximum film size of 2 GB and you can not use auto focus. I would have to manually focus the video. At the moment I have no smart phone so I can not go that route.

I am going to try and get out this weekend to see what's out there. Something simply that has decent zoom, battery life, low light shooting, and quality would be nice.

[rickpaw]

I have a Nikon D7000 that does video.... and I've used it for video. Here's my personal issue with a DSLR camera and shooting video. I can't remember the settings to make it shoot video because I don't use it often enough. It's not a one click pony. So if I was buying a new camera -- I'd be looking at it's operation function buttons to see if they're simple to switch modes.

If I just wanted to shoot video -- the GoPro TYPE cameras work great - EXCEPT there's no zoom... they're a one trick pony.

I have a Nikon D5000 that has video but the limitations are that videos are limited to 5 minutes in length or a maximum film size of 2 GB and you can not use auto focus. I would have to manually focus the video. At the moment I have no smart phone so I can not go that route.

I am going to try and get out this weekend to see what's out there. Something simply that has decent zoom, battery life, low light shooting, and quality would be nice.

My Nikon D7100 has a record button on top that when pressed, immediately goes into video recording mode. The movie length is only limited to your memory card sizes (it has dual memory card slots).