Someone came to see me at work today, they need a video camera for marketing purposes. After 5 minutes of trying to get actual requirements out of her I wanted to slit my own throat with a chip fork and gave up, but I got this far:

- Must have "good resolution"; this stuff is for marketing so clearly 1080p if poss.

- Needs to be compatible with both PC and Mac interface-wise. The last digital camcorder I bought several years ago could only transfer video over Firewire, the USB2 interface was photos only. I don't know whether this is still the case, but could cause problems, one of the people who might be doing some editing is on a Macbook Air so only has a single USB port.

- High quality optics, as megapixels/1080p aren't everything

- I would assume decent battery life, as it may well be used for 1 hour+ in some sessions, she wants to record some of the student project presentations which are usually 2-3 hours long but obviously have much less actual recording

On a side note, what cross-platform video editing apps are there? The woman has a Mac, one of the guys who might be doing it has both Mac and PC and she has no idea which he might want to use, etc. The only cross-platform solution I'm aware of is Premiere, but I'm not a video person so there might be stuff I'm simply not aware of.

I know someone will ask about the budget, nominally it's £3k as that's what's left in the account, but I think that's going to have to cover a camera, the software, a tripod, and maybe other accessories like batteries/chargers. So I guess maybe £1000-1500 for the camera alone should get us something quite "dogs *******s" with plenty left over for the peripherals...

I'd be tempted to look at DSLRs, something like a Canon 7D with an external Mic would cover all your bases. Costs could be a bit higher than you like, maybe. But you also get a decent stills camera and the ability to upgrade your optics when/if you get more budget.

The only downside would be that you won't get auto-focus during recording. But depending on the usage/ability of the recorder to use manual focus, it may be a non-issue?

Yeah, someone on another forum has mentioned buying a DSLR, it's not something I'd thought of tbh (I'm not a photographer so have no idea of the capabilities of modern DSLRs). Do they do 1080p, 30fps recording nowadays?

I know the 7D will do 1080p at 29.97fps. But looking at it, it seems it'll only do half an hour length at a time, which may be an issue for your brief if they can't stop/start at any point.

( http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Cameras/Digital_SLR/EOS_7D/#p-specification13 )

And a 550d will do the same for a lot less cash (sub £500 new), so could be a budget alternative if the DSLR issues aren't issues? You can then factor in a decent lens(es), decent mic and any extra batteries/flash media and still come out under budget.

I don't *think* the half hour length would be a problem, as the 2-3 hour sessions I'm thinking about would consist of several groups presenting their projects for sub-half an hour with a break between. So it's unlikely (IMO) that it would need to actually record for more than 30 minutes, my main issue is that the battery needs to last as long as possible, as there's likely to only be a couple of minutes break between each which won't be long enough to get an appreciable charge into it...

Non-brand batteries for the 550d can be around 10 quid up to about £30 for OEM. So a few extras would be peanuts. You could also get a battery grip which lets you put two batteries in and double the time between changes (you can also get an adapter for the grip that takes normal AAs too).

Not sure how long a full charge will allow you to record for, anecdotal evidence from various forums say about an hour per battery (exclusively HD vid).

You could always buy a mains adapter if it's not going to be roaming I guess? Then you wouldn't have to worry at all.

Maybe, this is why I was hoping to get some proper requirements rather than just "I want a really good camera" :(

The batteries are cheaper than I thought and the grip sounds good, so I'll definitely look into some SLR bodies rather than camcorders, as you're right about it being more flexible, we don't currently have a departmental "pool" SLR camera so it could be good to get one of those at the same time...

The 7D is brilliant at producing video! Just put "7D" into Vimeo and take a look.

Some examples:

I would be wary of going with a DSLR for video unless the people using it really know that they're doing, DSLRs are capable of very high quality video but they're not easy to use for video. The first problem is that autofocus is extremely slow because the high speed DSLR Phase Detect AutoFocus system (PDAF) is not available with the mirror up so it has to use CDAF on the sensor (Contrast Detect AutoFocus) which because the lenses aren't designed for it is very slow, manual focus is usually recommended. With the mirror up, the viewfinder is blacked so you have to use the rear screen. As the lenses aren't designed for video use their AF motors can be noisy, zooms can be jerky (as they have a zoom ring rather than a power zoom) and they don't have a continuous aperture so there can be noticeable clicks in varying light levels. These issues can be worked around and the image quality from the large sensor is very impressive but it doesn't sound like it's the right solution as the impression given in the opening post is that the users aren't going to be particularly savvy camera users.

There are a couple of alternatives, Sony's SLT design has an EVF and offers full time high speed autofocus in video but still has the problem of no purpose design video lenses which also means in their case there's no stabilised lenses as they use the sensor for stabilisation which I think they now disable in video for their newest SLT cameras due to problems overheating. The other choice is a mirrorless camera like the Panasonic GH2 and the 14-140mm lens, this was designed with video in mind so it has an EVF and it offers high speed autofocus in video mode with a choice of lenses that are optimised for video which now include two power zoom lenses where you can smoothly zoom back and forth. These are the 14-42mm X and the 45-175mm X, strangely the 14-140mm is still an old fashioned zoom ring which is difficult to zoom smoothly back and forth the full range.

John

Get the right tool for the job IMO. Don't buy a DSLR to shoot video, get a video camera. I have a Panasonic HDC SD90 camcorder.

It records onto SD card, can shoot full 1080p and a battery can just about last 2 hours, as a bonus it has a socket for an external microphone, which I didn't expect. I'd recommend getting a spare battery for any camcorder if you need to use it for a long time. The Panasonics image quality blew me away, and this is not the top of the range! I would give the Panasonic range serious consideration.

Try this:

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/panasonic-hc-x900-full-hd-camcorder-black-12295446-pdt.html

They also have a 3D lens fitting as an extra if you get tempted later.

Asda were doing a Vivator 1240HD for around £50 .Problem is that it came without memory,and depending on who you talked to you could get led up the garden path. Another problem is that there's little info in the handbook, the full manual is on line. BUT- it's that new that even now, the manual has not been put on line. Nice camera.Good still facility, with anti shake on video. Problem is that in sunshine ,you might need a screen round the viewscreen to let you see what you're recording.