whats a good/mid range surfing (action sports) video camera?
preferrably below $1000 aus but up to $1500. it needs to have good zoom to get to the action thats possibly 50m+ away. fast fps and reasonable quality.
any ideas.
also if you have any knowledge of the topic whats some good vid cams for in-water shots (clearly need to be waterproof)?
thankyou
Waterproof cameras are not going to do what you want, nor have the quality, water proofing a camera is not difficult but can be expensive, you not only have to think about water , but also salt water, this is the kiss of death to electronic devices, and another thing sand, taking video on a beach where its going to be windy, if sand can get in it will.
You are better off getting a waterproof housing, they come in basically two flavours, the first being like a ziplock bag with a place for the lens at one end from about $120usd, the second is a hard casing, made from either plastic or metal, normally used for scuba diving from a few hundred to thousands. . if you are not going to be taking the camera scuba diving, (or to any great depth) then the ziplock bag will probably be good enough, but you are also going to have to attach a tripod to the camera, as there is no way in this world that you will be able to hold the camera steady enough.
So basicall you can use any camcorder and get a bag to fit it.
I would be looking at a flash drive camera, takes better video then HDD cameras, (not by a huge amount) ignore the digital zoom only look for optical zoom, the more zoom you use the more steady you have to be and a better tripod you will need. Battery life is better.
I would assume that audio will not be important to you, as beaches will give a huge amount of wind noise, making the audio unuseable, if it is important then an external mic would be help ful with a wind cover, over it, but you may have problems fitting it with a case.
As for makes and models, the main ones are best Canon, Sony, JVC, maybe talk to others who do the same thing, and see what they use,
RR
Waterproof cameras are not going to do what you want, nor have the quality, water proofing a camera is not difficult but can be expensive, you not only have to think about water , but also salt water, this is the kiss of death to electronic devices, and another thing sand, taking video on a beach where its going to be windy, if sand can get in it will.
You are better off getting a waterproof housing, they come in basically two flavours, the first being like a ziplock bag with a place for the lens at one end from about $120usd, the second is a hard casing, made from either plastic or metal, normally used for scuba diving from a few hundred to thousands. . if you are not going to be taking the camera scuba diving, (or to any great depth) then the ziplock bag will probably be good enough, but you are also going to have to attach a tripod to the camera, as there is no way in this world that you will be able to hold the camera steady enough.
So basicall you can use any camcorder and get a bag to fit it.
I would be looking at a flash drive camera, takes better video then HDD cameras, (not by a huge amount) ignore the digital zoom only look for optical zoom, the more zoom you use the more steady you have to be and a better tripod you will need. Battery life is better.
I would assume that audio will not be important to you, as beaches will give a huge amount of wind noise, making the audio unuseable, if it is important then an external mic would be help ful with a wind cover, over it, but you may have problems fitting it with a case.
As for makes and models, the main ones are best Canon, Sony, JVC, maybe talk to others who do the same thing, and see what they use,
RR
References :
Cameraman
You should go with Canon VIXIA HF S20 Dual Flash Memory Camcorder – 2010 MODEL
Records up to 12 hours of crisp high definition video to a 32GB internal flash drive or directly to two removable SD memory cards
Genuine Canon 10x HD Video Lens
Canon 1/2.6" 8.59-Megapixel Full HD CMOS Image Sensor captures video at 1920 x 1080 resolution
Canon DIGIC DV III Image Processor
Dynamic SuperRange OIS corrects a full range of motion
References :
http://amzn.to/eXvdV8