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I am needing to do a short documentary for a Uni thing. I could wait to October but unfortunately, I am the slowest worker of all time and have decided to start early.

I need a "Handicam" or some sort of home video camera(digital) that isn't just gonna work out like the home videos of you on your 4th birthday.

Anyone have any recommendations?

The best, affordable?

How do you plan to edit this footage? That will decide whether you should be shooting high definition or standard definition.

If your editing system isn't up to cutting high definition video, I'd recommend MiniDV as the best standard definition format for your budget, being more edit-friendly than MPEG-based compression used in DVD camcorders and hard drive-based models.

The quality of your footage will benefit from having a good camcorder with a good lens on the front, but much more important is good shooting technique - such as planninng your shots, using a tripod whenever possible, and having enough light to prevent the image becoming grainy and muddy.

Another big consideration is sound - the built-in microphones on camcorders aren't usually ideal for serious shoots, and bad sound makes the rest of the video look bad. Strange but true. On that score, be sure that the camcorder you choose has a microphone socket. many consumer models these days don't.

If the camcorder has a shoe attachment on top, so much the better, as it will allow you to mount a directional microphone atop the camera.

So, your initial checklist should be:

Reasonable manual control of focus and exposure for working in difficult environments (you might want to fly auto for most of the shoot, but there are times when manual override is incredibly useful).

Microphone socket

Reasonable low light tolerance

Get a tripod

Get a directional microphone (even a cheap one will be better than the on-board mic if it's directional)

Consider a small video light if you're going to be shooting in dimly lit places (a well diffused 'soft' light is ideal)

There was a time when I'd recommend specific camcorder models, but it's years since I worked as a journalist in this field - I'm a little out of touch with the current state of the market.

Hope that helps though,

Pete

Forgot to mention - turn off the digital zoom and leave it off.

Digital zoom = grotty picture.

Thanks for taking the time to type that up, it's really been helpful.

Just to add, have you got any suggestions for specific cameras Mr.Wells, or ideas on price?

if you can't use pc's excellent advice - would you consider being all studenty and shooting it on an iphone and then editing it together?

bit like the "behind the scenes at the adelphi" thing that derren shows you on here:

http://derrenbrownart.com/blog/category/db-direct/

Haha, unfortunately not dear Iain.

Mr.Moore will be viewing the students' final clips!

If you have a budget and a camera that can be put on a tripod (i.e. you aren't using a cameraphone) and you need to have some motion shots using a tiny budget, might I suggest building yourself a version of the "Poor Man's Steadicam"... http://steadycam.org/ has the instructions, and it's damn cheap but effective.

As I said, gone are the days when I tested and reviews these things, so I don't have much hands-on experience with the current batch of consumer camcorders.

I can dig around technical specs and make suggestions though, but first I'll need an idea of your budget and your editing facilities (ie, will it handle high-def or just DV?).

Another alternative would be to hire a camera and accessories for the duration of the shoot.

In the past - when I needed more cameras that I owned for big multi-camera shoots, I hired equipment through VMI, near Golders Green (0870 850 1444 or 020 8922 1222). They're good helpful people. Hiring a Sony Z1 would give tremendous picture quality and the choice of HDV or DV recording. You'll need references to convince any hire company that you're not a camcorder-eating troll, but I'm sure your uni can oblige on that score.

Cheers,

Pete

Great stuff, thanks.

Until I'm actually on campus, HiDef is out of the question, my Mac here is getting pretty old.

Budget wise, less than £1000 would be ideal, but if nothing really works well within that range, a rental is probably my best and only option!

£1,000 will buy you a lot of consumer MiniDV camcorder!

And for that price, I'd be tempted to go for HDV, which will also shoot in standard def DV mode until you're ready to edit high definition.

I haven't used one, but this looks good and falls well within your budget. It's not a 'pro' camcorder, but for zero-budget college documentary work, it might be all you need.

An excellent camcorder review site is here. All the specs are NTSC for the American market, but the nitty-gritty details about goodness, badness and handling are valid for PAL machines too.

As for microphone, I have one of these and I use it all the time on solo shoots. It's wonderful for the money - just remember to turn it on when it's plugged into the camcorder, or your footage will be mute (although that applies to any external mic).

Choice of tripod will depend on how much you want to spend and how much you want to carry. Manfrotto make excellent tripods, but you can also get something very useful from Jessops for a fraction of the price. Buying a tripod is one of those things where you need to see the thing first-hand though, so I would advise a trip to Jessops for that.

And that should still leave change in your pocket for tapes, tea and biscuits.

Hope all that helps,

Pete

Great Stuff Pete. *Thumbs Up*

Can I just borrow this thread for a minute as there seems to be a lot of useful knowledge on here.

I am looking for a reasonably priced VERY easy to use editing package. I am erally struggling with editing hence the emphasis on the very easy!

If you're running a Windows PC, you have a lot of choice. The three I'd suggest looking at are:

Pinnacle Studio is a wonderfully designed program. It's genuinely intuitive, has an almost non-existant learning curve, but has a featureset you're unlikely to grow out of any time soon. It also has a reputation for being hideously unstable on many computer systems (but rock-solid on others, with no rhyme or reason as to what it likes or dislikes).

Ulead VideoStudio (now Corel VideoStudio) is also easy to understand and use. It doesn't have the (in)stability reputation of Pinnacle Studio, but it's not quite as well-featured. It runs a close contest though, and works as a reasonable logical workhorse.

Adobe Premiere Elements is essentially a light version of Adobe's £600-ish Premiere software. It's 'dumbed down' in some respects and redesigned for quick-and-dirty editing. In the process it's also easier to learn - but not quite as immediately intuitive as the two programs listed above. The advantage of Premiere Elements, though, is that it speaks pretty much the same language as Premiere Pro, so if you ever need to move up to the prosumer arena, you can hit the ground running.

On the Mac, you've got iMovie. It's okay.

Hope that helps

Pete

I can also heartily reccomend these books:

A Beginner's Guide to Digital Video

Digital Camcorder Technique

Digital Video Editing

They were published before the onset of consumer-level high-definition, but the focus is on what you do with your kit more than the kit itself, so it's all still relevant.

And they're expertly written by a very talented, cultured and handsome chap who currently works as a magician and psychic entertainer...