Love for canon

[Treat me like a tourist]

Ok its probably not the place to ask, but do any of you own a canon video camera?
Technically i can post this as they take image stills lol- hheehehe.

I hav just bought an imac as an accessory to my canon 20d- lol thats the excuse atleast, btut i am after a video camera to mess about with imovie- relatively cheap too! any recommendations surely there must be, the number of people who use this foru, any help would be appreciated, just hope a moderator doesnt delete this thread now!

Thanks again guys, A.

[Andy_T]

Tourist,

just some consideration ... after having a lot of fun with my G2, I bought myself a nice MicroDV Panasonic video camera. However, I hardly ever use it, as (with a PC) transferring the movies to the PC is a major p.i.t.a. and takes a long time. So if you buy one, either make sure your iMac is really fast in transferring and converting video feed, or get one that writes to DVDs.

Best regards,
Andy

[Treat me like a tourist]

ok, well its a spankin new imac with the latest intel chipset, and lovely 20" screen. Hopefully it will be quick, if anyone can help me i would appreciate it. I believe there is scope for stills and videos in our canon passion lol.

Thanks.

[Bob_A]

We have a Canon Elura (forgot the model) that we bought a few years back which uses mini DV tapes. It's been a fantastic video camera.

At first I was going to edit all of the tapes and make them into fancy presentations but I didn't really enjoy all the work and now just burn them to DVD using my home entertainment system DVD burner/player. I just plug the camera in to the front of the DVD recorder and burn, which is really easy. I keep the tapes as my backup.

[Andy_T]

... but I didn't really enjoy all the work and now just burn them to DVD ...

Exactly what I experienced. But as I don't have a DVD recorder, my video camera just sits idle on my shelf at home... photography is so much more rewarding for me.

Best regards,
Andy

PS: And I was at that time (2 years ago) also using a top-of-the-line PC with a fast AMD processor ... however, to capture life video in DVD quality and immediately compress it, this would have meant another 1000$ realtime video add-on card. You might have more luck with the imac, but better make sure before you buy it. Take a look at this article on video cards (http://www.urbanfox.tv/articles/editing/e17videocards.htm), as it also has recommendations for macintosh users, I assume there is a (possibly slight) risk that not all might work immediately without any other gear.

[stupot]

cant help with a camera... but i'd imagine a new imac can easily handle video... i'd just decide on a budget and then buy a known brand for that price, they're prob all the same:P though i have heard good things about panasonic... or you could buy a canon XL2 and put some L lenses on it:D

[Jon]

Got a ZR70, but really practically never use it. The A620 will do 9 min. video clips and is a bunch smaller.

[Mark_Cohran]

I have the Canon Elura 2 (personal) and the Canon GL2 (business). Both cameras take mini DV. There is a significant quality difference between the two (and a significant price difference as well). The Elura is a single CCD sensor camera, whereas the GL2 is a 3CCD camera.

Although I own Apple's premier movie editing program (Final Cut Pro), I find myself usually using iMovie and iDVD for most of my projects. The interface is intuitive and easy to learn, and the quality of the output is excellent.

For just home use, the Elura or Optima line of Canon mini-DV recorders should be fine, and you'll enjoy putting together movies with iMovie and then burning them to DVD with iDVD.

Mark

[epj3]

My sister bought a ZR500 for pretty cheap, it's nothing special but work fine and can take video in a widescreen resolution.

[Steve Parr]

This will probably make some hear weep, but here it goes:

My wife used to be a Canon rep.

This was, sadly, before the advent of DSLR's.

She was able to get us a smokin' deal on a Canon camcorder. It worked well for a while. Then, one day, it gave up the ghost, and we were told it could not be repaired.

Haven't bothered with one since...

[JulianL]

When I bought my camcorder, about 4 years ago, I compared the Canon camcorder to the Sony I ended up buying and the Sony came out on top then. Not sure if the Canon is improved now but the Sony was the better choice at the time. I bought the Sony TRV-19 mini-DV.

[Darkhamr]

I have the Canon Elura 2 (personal) and the Canon GL2 (business). Both cameras take mini DV. There is a significant quality difference between the two (and a significant price difference as well). The Elura is a single CCD sensor camera, whereas the GL2 is a 3CCD camera.

Although I own Apple's premier movie editing program (Final Cut Pro), I find myself usually using iMovie and iDVD for most of my projects. The interface is intuitive and easy to learn, and the quality of the output is excellent.

For just home use, the Elura or Optima line of Canon mini-DV recorders should be fine, and you'll enjoy putting together movies with iMovie and then burning them to DVD with iDVD.

Mark

Good advice here, though I'd suggest buying the vidcam most suited to your needs that fits your budget and don't let brand loyalty impact your decision. I own an Elura 85 and love it except in low light. In consumer models the panasonics own due to the 3ccd sensors and better manual controls. I'd also recommend NOT getting any camera that records natively in Mpeg2 such as a dvd model or some HDD models as while the convenience is there the quality usually isn't, with the caveat that I am about 3-4 months behind in following the latest models.

[Treat me like a tourist]

I have the Canon Elura 2 (personal) and the Canon GL2 (business). Both cameras take mini DV. There is a significant quality difference between the two (and a significant price difference as well). The Elura is a single CCD sensor camera, whereas the GL2 is a 3CCD camera.

Although I own Apple's premier movie editing program (Final Cut Pro), I find myself usually using iMovie and iDVD for most of my projects. The interface is intuitive and easy to learn, and the quality of the output is excellent.

For just home use, the Elura or Optima line of Canon mini-DV recorders should be fine, and you'll enjoy putting together movies with iMovie and then burning them to DVD with iDVD.

Mark


Thanks, from what i gather i think the elura model is the same as the one i am looking at, for some reason they change the model names over here. I think just something basic that you can mess around with and record something like a sport event and piece it together on somehting quick and easy like imovie - is all i need.

Thanks everyone, with regard to panasonic i have heard good things about them and sony however the models featuring 3 sensors are twice as expensive, this is just a bit of fun really my main passion will be photography still. This forum has taught me to pick a budget and stick to it! lol.
I think £280 is a good price for a digi vid camera myself- if i like the look and feel of it i wil prb buy it today!- credit cards are ever so dangerous!

[Mark_Cohran]

I think you'll be happy with the Elura model. It takes nice video, it's just that the 3 CCD models are give so much cleaner video. I just used mine today to shoot some video of my baby granddaughter - imported it into iMovie, added a couple of transitions, compressed it for e-mail and sent it to my mother 2000 miles away. Elapsed time? Twenty minutes tops.

Mark

[rklepper]

I have had a Canon ZR10 for years. The first of the ZR series. Still works great. I am thinking of upgrading. Really have fun with this and I have the software to burn the movies directly to a DVD so I can share with everyone I know. Great fun.