silly question G11 vs G12

I've been getting into shooting video for my husband's band. I thought I'd get the Zoom Q3HD for the sound quality, but I hear the video stinks. We tried a flip and the sound clipped and buzzed, and video was very blurry in anything but sunlight.

I'm not looking for anything super great, just for their youtube page to show people how they are live. But I need something slightly better then the G11. Is the HD on the G12 any better? How is the mic, can you adjust the gain at all? I'd love to upgrade my 50D to a 60D but can't afford it as my husband will start working on his second masters degree this fall and we need the money for other things right now (mostly because with my health I'm not steady and would need to also buy a good IS lens like the 17-55, and that puts me WAY over budget.)

Is there a better P&S for this type of video? I know it's super difficult to shoot video in a dark club/bar with a very loud band. But this is what I can do with the G11 right now, not knowing much about video (yes the lighting with the magenta gels sucks, sorry)

http://www.youtube.com​/watch?v=fFjakHDJMG0

For a P&S I'm assuming this is ok, but we'd like a bit better if possible, without getting into something expensive, because at some point in the next 9-12 months I will get the 60D.

Well as a general rule...HD is going to be better than non-HD...so yes...the video on the G12 is better than the video on the G11. I don't believe you can adjust the gain, though it's possible I'm mistaken. The mic, in my experience, is fine. It's not a fan of wind, obviously...but show me a mic that is.

Cheaper 720p capable cameras can be had for much less than a G12, though. I had a SD780IS previously, and the video was essentially the same as the G12, and I picked it up for $100 second hand on craigslist.

Are you aware the G12 cannot be "zoomed" in video mode. I think the G11 can.

Can someone tell me who started the rumor that the G12 cannot zoom while in video mood? Or is it because it's a digital zoom and not a true zoom or some other technical bs? Because I can zoom in perfectly fine while in video mode on my G12. But I have read on tons of sites that the G12 cannot zoom while in video mode.

Edit: http://www.youtube.com​/watch?v=MaHMbMS-9u8

Edit2: http://www.youtube.com …-wGywu1rs&feature=relat​ed - Or as someone states here - there is no autofocus when zooming in video mode? Is that the confusion?

joshtalgia wrote in post #12484485
Can someone tell me who started the rumor that the G12 cannot zoom while in video mood? Or is it because it's a digital zoom and not a true zoom or some other technical bs? Because I can zoom in perfectly fine while in video mode on my G12. But I have read on tons of sites that the G12 cannot zoom while in video mode.

Edit: http://www.youtube.com​/watch?v=MaHMbMS-9u8

Edit2: http://www.youtube.com …-wGywu1rs&feature=relat​ed - Or as someone states here - there is no autofocus when zooming in video mode? Is that the confusion?

Canon started it I believe. I have only heard it will not hold a focus when it is zoomed in or out. You set the zoom at the beginning and if you try to decrease or increase the zoom it degrades focus. I do not personally know & honestly do not care. I did not buy a G12 for video. I simply think it is something the OP should be aware of and research it thoroughly. OK? I have a funny notion the OP should err on the side of caution SINCE video is important to him. I have seen links that say no, yes, no, yes, no. Is it wrong to make the OP aware of a major controversy concerning the G12?

I think if it is an actual issue then it should definitely be brought to the OPs attention. But not with a simple one-liner that doesn't go into any detail about the issue.

Saying that the camera cannot be "zoomed" is quite vague, and the fact of the matter is that it can zoom while in video mode. Regardless of focus issues, it'll still zoom...which seems to me as if it's not a matter of controversy so much as it is a matter of people that haven't educated themselves with the facts and just go around repeating what they have read elsewhere.

The statement "i do not personally know & honestly do not care." doesn't exactly put you in a very positive light. If that's the case....then why bother posting at all? The OP is asking for, at the very least, a semblance of an educated response.

from what I've read (don't have the experience yet) if I were interested in G12 video I would load up the CHDK, it seems to have a lot of video features including; optical zoom in and out and refocus (and more).

Gil Bean wrote in post #12484472
Are you aware the G12 cannot be "zoomed" in video mode. I think the G11 can.

The G11 can zoom in standby mode but not while actually recording video.

Yesterday I deliberately zoomed the video mode in the G!2 from one end of the zoom length to the other a few times. Only in one frame it started to go soft and that may have been the shutter speed getting to slow for what was a low light situation. I am satisfied that the digital zoom is usable in video mode, but others may differ. Ironically the DP review site in a review of the camera states it can't zoom.

gardengirl13 wrote in post #12482121
I've been getting into shooting video for my husband's band. I thought I'd get the Zoom Q3HD for the sound quality, but I hear the video stinks. We tried a flip and the sound clipped and buzzed, and video was very blurry in anything but sunlight.

I'm not looking for anything super great, just for their youtube page to show people how they are live. But I need something slightly better then the G11. Is the HD on the G12 any better? How is the mic, can you adjust the gain at all? I'd love to upgrade my 50D to a 60D but can't afford it as my husband will start working on his second masters degree this fall and we need the money for other things right now (mostly because with my health I'm not steady and would need to also buy a good IS lens like the 17-55, and that puts me WAY over budget.)

Is there a better P&S for this type of video? I know it's super difficult to shoot video in a dark club/bar with a very loud band. But this is what I can do with the G11 right now, not knowing much about video (yes the lighting with the magenta gels sucks, sorry)

http://www.youtube.com​/watch?v=fFjakHDJMG0

For a P&S I'm assuming this is ok, but we'd like a bit better if possible, without getting into something expensive, because at some point in the next 9-12 months I will get the 60D.

Get a Nikon P7000 and you have more zoom (7x) reach and OPTICAL zoom
while you'r filming. IMHO digital zoom is wurthless in every situation.

Good luck.

The G12 zoom is digital, not optical. My brief example is here: http://lightdescriptio​n.blogspot.com/2011/01​/g12-clock-video.html

Well I'm not caring too much about zooming while filming, this is just for youtube and won't be anything fancy as I'm not steady enough for anything other then standing and filming. And now a wrench has been tossed in, there are whispers of a round of layoffs, so the 60D will wait a lot longer (if ever if I'm on that list,) so I'll need something for a longer time frame.

In order to do this now I'll have to sell the G11 and my 50 1.8 prime and a few other things. I was really hoping the Flip would work better, but man that thing was worse then the G11.

If the G12 is a lot better I may consider, but I'm not sure it's a ton better. Well, OK, not a ton, but you know what I mean. I'd like to get it if it's noticeably better, but if it's not then it's not worth the cost right now.

joshtalgia wrote in post #12488739
I think if it is an actual issue then it should definitely be brought to the OPs attention. But not with a simple one-liner that doesn't go into any detail about the issue.

Saying that the camera cannot be "zoomed" is quite vague, and the fact of the matter is that it can zoom while in video mode. Regardless of focus issues, it'll still zoom...which seems to me as if it's not a matter of controversy so much as it is a matter of people that haven't educated themselves with the facts and just go around repeating what they have read elsewhere.

The statement "i do not personally know & honestly do not care." doesn't exactly put you in a very positive light. If that's the case....then why bother posting at all? The OP is asking for, at the very least, a semblance of an educated response.

In spite of what you think about my attitude or statement, it did get quite a bit of feed-back started. As near as I can tell, it is still a split on whether or not the zoom quality of the G12 video is worth a flip. So, "controversy" or "positive light" my "uneducated" response shed a bright light, boy.

GilBean

I think that you would be infinitely better off just buying an inexpensive video camera than using a Canon "G", or even the 60D, or for that matter, the 7D, the 5DmkII or even the 1DmkIV..Or whatever the "best" dSLR camera for video capture may be.

Yes, the far larger sensor in the dSLR cameras can capture great image quality as far as dynamic range as opposed to a small camcorder - and I'd assume much better low light sensitivity. Even the G cameras have much larger sensors than an inexpensive dedicated video camera.

But the video cameras (camcorders) were designed from the ground up to do just one thing - video - And the quality is MORE than what you could possibly need for YouTube (assuming most people won't watch their YouTube clips by tethering their computers to a 70 inch HD TV set - and even then I'd not be surprised if the quality was still pretty good).

"Filming" with one camera is not "movie making" - so unless you have a crew, a script and a lot of equipment, I don't see how it's possible to do more with the potential of the two advantages a dSLR has over a little camcorder - One is the sensor size and two is the possible access to the many high quality lenses made for EF mounts (or same or Nikon or any other SLR mount lenses)..But "potential" is for just a concept...especially when addressing the issue of one person with one camera.

With motion pictures, zoom is the more practical approach when filming (or using video) with a single camera... as opposed to changing lenses which works great for still photography and CAN work well in video, but NOT for live performances and not without the all important use of multiple cameras when shooting without a script.

My $.02 - and one of only three things I know a bit about.

Peace,
D.

Gil Bean wrote in post #12511433
In spite of what you think about my attitude or statement, it did get quite a bit of feed-back started. As near as I can tell, it is still a split on whether or not the zoom quality of the G12 video is worth a flip. So, "controversy" or "positive light" my "uneducated" response shed a bright light, boy.

GilBean

Sadly, once again, you're misconstruing things. Your response didn't shed any light on anything. It was the other responses that basicaly said "Hey uh, don't listen to this guy since he's just generalizing things and saying zoom doesn't work at all. The fact of the matter is that it does work, it's just digital instead of optical. He probably read somewhere else that the zoom didn't work and made the sad mistake of assuming that statement to be true, instead of reading up on the subject itself before he just repeated something he read elsewhere not knowing it to be true."

At any rate...hopefully at least this thread will help you in future circumstances where you feel the need to regurgitate non-confirmed information and actually do a little research first, so you don't come off as uneducated on the situation....boy.