Whenever you start a discussion about videography or photography, there arises a common question “What camera I should buy?”.
First of all, I must clear you one thing that I’m not a director nor a professional cameraman, I’m a normal guy who is passionate about videography and my main theme behind this blog is to help you to create a professional looking video with the basic consumer camera or mobile phone along with few basic light effects. My passion for video creation made me recognized among many people & I create videos for them (totally non commercial) but I maintain a quality.
As I’m a passionate videographer, I assure you that I won’t refer any professional camera worth thousand dollars, instead I’ll go for the cameras worth $100-$300.
I use a point and shoot camera to record HD video and if you’re thinking to get a good quality capture then you should look for the below features in them.
1. HD record – the first important thing you need to look, whether your camera shoots in full HD? some shoots in HD 720p but it’s not sufficient in today’s Video Demand. Now a days, video sites like Vimeo and YouTube prefers 1080p quality videos, so try to purchase a camera that must have this feature.
2. Stereo sound record – Ask any video expert for the video secret.. he’ll say that Sound is the heart of a Video. Yes, you heard it correct… Only a good quality video won’t freeze your viewers eyeballs, You need a good sound to warm up their ears for understanding what’s going on.. So, you need a good inbuilt mic that record stereo sound. As I’m talking about a normal p&S camera, they don’t have any external mic option so you’ve to rely on inbuilt microphone. If you’ve good bucks to spend, then I’ll highly recommend you for a DSLR & an external ECM mic.
3. Auto Focus – Your camera need to have an auto focus feature in it.. so that while you’re on your way to record a subject, your lens automatically highlight the subject leaving the background bit blurry. This increases the depth of the video.
Manual focus is too highly appreciated, but for that you need to go for a DSLR or a professional video camera.
4. Low light Sensitive – It’s the most important thing you need to look before purchasing a camera as because you won’t get sufficient light everywhere, so if your camera is not good at it then your low light capture will give poor output.
5. IS – IS is Image Stabilization. It’s a fact that no one like shaky videos as it creates headache for the viewers to follow up. So, image stabilization avoids your video for going shaky and can easily handle quick movements of lens.
6. fps – FPS is Frame Per Second, that means in a a second how many still images will be captured to form a smooth motion video. It effects the smooth movement of your video… The higher the fps, the better it is. Even though the standard is 24fps-30fps. The professional video cameras can shoot in 120fps-300fps which are actually used to capture the fastest moving object with more detailing & can later be converted into small fps for standard viewing experience.
Best Camera I’d recommend -
Canon SX 220 (latest versions of this models are too available) I use this point&shoot camera to shoot my videos which are pretty good. Basically it’s affordable & qualifies all the above 4 features. Problem: it doesn’t have manual focus.
Nikon COOLPIX S6300 camera is an alternative to Canon and is cheaper but not effective in low light.
Go Pro (For Adventurous Videographers) - If you’d like to shoot sports or your adventurous activities then you may choose Go Pro. This camera is too good at shooting bike stunts, sky diving. They’re tough & waterproof and can easily absorb any kind of shocks. They’ve different kits for different purpose.
iPhone (mobile camera) – If you’re thinking to create a video with a mobile phone camera, then I’ll recommend Apple iPhone 4s, which shoots in full HD. Even there are many music videos released on YouTube that are shot by it.
DSLRs (for more professional videos) – truly speaking I practically didn’t used its video feature but only saw the video quality on internet… they’re damn awesome at it and even got an option for external audio input.
I hope you got the information that you’re seeking for… if you’ve any question or any good cameras to include then put it in the comment below..
