Digital SLR, or Camcorder?

hopeful_builder

hopeful_builder

hopeful_builder

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13 Feb 2012
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More and more bceoming media focused. I want to get into photography and would like to enter the realm of Digital SLRs for stills, however i also require something to capture HD Videos on.

I know Digital SLR's are capable of HD video recording, but are they really upto scratch? enough to not bother with a camcorder?

The only real thing I require the camcorder to do is record in full HD, have a decent zoom - anything at least 10x optical is ample (more the better - always a bonus) and the possibility of adding an external mic for recording live music events, or maybe even plugging direct into a sound deck (not essential as I can record the audio separately.

Any advice greatly appreciated, I don't have a massive budget (approx £500) but I don't mind buying second hand.
 
Russinating said:
What will you be filming?

We shoot weddings and we've now switched to shooting 50/50 on camcorders/DSLRs, and we shoot 100% of our corporate work on DSLRs.

They're great, but expensive (but then so are decent dedicated camcorders) because a body alone isn't enough, and lenses don't offer as much flexibility as camcorder lenses/zooms which means you need more than one; we've just ordered £1,500 worth of DSLR lenses.
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Thanks for your reply:)

Mainly filming Bands in venues and rehearsal / practice rooms. whilst I realize the quality is never gonna be spectacular in these environments I don't want to just buy something inferior.

I'm using my iphone 4 at the moment, with some fostex mic's - which works surprising well but as the band/bands need photos I was seriously considering a Digital SLR and a perhaps a few local photography courses to get me on the right track.

I know lenses and add on's such and flash units can be expensive for DSLR's but It too similar to when I built my PC, buy a bare unit and build up as a when you can to suit you needs.

Any DSLR's you could recommend to me please?
 
Marvelous. just found a brand new Canon 60D for £539! :) which I would be very happy to pay for seen as its going to be able act as a camcorder and Camera.

I don't mind paying for the lenses, but might have to wait a month for those until the funds allow me to do so :)I like the idea of this camera giving me the flexibility and functionality over a camcorder - all for a better price too.

I will get the biggest memory card I can afford and take into account the class as I read somewhere this can cause HD Video to distort or stutter.
My iphone shooting a mere 720 eats through the MB, I can just imagine the image sizes being colossal in size, let alone full HD video on this Cannon.

shouldn't be a problem with my comp - only thing I need to add is a GPU and maybe a couple more SSD's but I can encode video at a stonking rate.

thanks for your help. Had a quick ganders at you gallery and wedding portfolio. Very impressive. keep up the good work :)
 
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