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Camcorder advice. (1 Viewer)

senatore

Well-known member
I've been planning for a while now to buy a camcorder ( mainly for videoing birds ) and after much dithering I've decided to go for the Panasonic HX C920 in the new year when prices may be a bit better.

This plan was put into doubt a little when I saw on U-Tube this week some very good videos taken with a Canon SX50HS which had an amazing zoom and is much cheaper than the Panasonic.

Any advise on these two bits of kit would be very welcome.

Max.
 
Hi Max

I recently bought the Panasonic HC-X920 which is I guess the one you mean (hate all these numbers and letters!). It's the first time I've owned a camcorder and I was attracted to it because of good low light performance and great reviews. I also have the canon bridge camera you mention and I've shot a little video with it.

In favour of the Panasonic:

1. It's much easier to shoot video with a video camera as everything is set up with that in mind.

2. It's very compact so I can go out with my large DSLR, tripod etc and jam the video camera in a pocket just in case.

3. The low light performance is pretty good - Dawn starling footage here.

Against the Panasonic:

1. I can't use my range of lenses on it.

2. It doesn't really have an adequate optical zoom for most bird photography.

Where to next?

1. I'm getting a tripod and fluid video head to improve panning smoothness.

2. I'll get a Rode Videomic to improve sound pickup.

3. If I decide I enjoy making videos, I'll probably get either the Sony NEX-VG20e or similar so I can use my Canon lenses or something like the Canon XA20 with a 20x as opposed to 12x optical zoom.

Good luck with decision making.

Cheers

Tim
 
Hi Tim,

I agree most of things that you wrote about Panasonic camcorder. But I disagree about not using your lenses on this camcorder. You can use all of your lenses via proper adapter. For example if you use Showtime adapter and a 300mm lens (which gives circa 6x magnification) on your camcorder, you can achieve 4500mm focal length (750mm from camcorder together with loseless digital zoom x 6=4500mm!).

I use many high quality manual focus lenses with my Panasonic camcorder. Please checkout my channel: www.vimeo.com/channels/murat

Best wishes

Murat F. Özçelik
 
Hi Murat

That sounds very interesting and you have some great footage on your website. How do I get hold of one of these adapters - I can't see anything very obvious through Google?

Thanks

Tim
 
Hi Tim,

I bought this adapter from Taiwan. I don't remember the contact information. But I found that guy from vimeo. Mr Frank Wu as I remember. And I found while I was writing :). Here is the email: [email protected] and here is a sample footage of him and the contact information: https://vimeo.com/4922210

Please remember that your video footage quality is depend on the lens you use. If you use a mediochre tele lens do not expect high quality ultra tele footage. But if you use a high resolution tele lens you will be amazed with your bird footages. Here is a frame grab from my footages that was taken at 7560mm.

Murat F. Özçelik
 

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I would definitely agree with Tim that whatever you do, a better directional mic (with windshield) makes a tremendous difference, assuming that there is a suitable jack available on the camera.

While I have pretty well standardised on Sony Video kit, bought back when they had a useful range of tele-extenders etc., now sacrificed in the name of 3D, I have shot videos on quite a lot of still and non-Sony video kit. I have found two areas that need checking, one is autofocus at extreme zoom and in still cameras the IS, both of which usually worked excellently in still photographing mode or when videoing something fairly static, but could be, on some cameras, an absolute nightmare for a moving target. Hopefully things are better on the very latest kit.
 
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Just to finish off the little bit about using the Panasonic with other lenses, the details are as follows:

2013 SHOWTIME 35MM Adapter USD$650 - price quoted to me

(Shipping Included from Taiwan I believe)

DMF Taiwan Frank Wu


Order by email to [email protected]


Payment by PayPal.


At the moment I have no plans to buy one myself at that price or anything like it.


Cheers


Tim
 
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