filming your own hunts, hdd vs mini dvc

Ok guys let's face it, more and more people are trying to film their own hunts and going out and buying camera's.

Here's my opinion so take it for what it's worth.

hdd camera's are junk...period!
the only real advantage to these camera's is the fact that the disc hold an unreal amount of footage....something like 60 hrs or so...who cares, if it can't maintain a good quality of footage when uploaded. If it was so great the film industry would be using it right?

The only way to go in my books is the mini dv cassette, easily uploaded to any editing program, maintains it's integrity and quality, what you see is what you get basically. so before going out and spending your hard earned money on something you may think is the latest and greatest, do a little homework, talk to someone who has used them and make the right choice.
Rick

Hey rick ....I have a mini dvd but cant seem to upload it to my computer.......have a bear hunt and a dear hunt on it but can't do anything but view it.

any sugggestions??


It's a Hitachi


Thanks...Scott

What kind of cam are you using? Sony ?

It's a Hitachi....BX35A

dvd or dvc?

if it's a hdd you may have to download the handbrake program off the net, it's free, I had to do that to download Team Fake Tree's moose video. my two editing programs would not accept the hdd format, you may have the same issue.
rick
handbrake.com

Hey Dufus (I just love that name LOL)

if you want send me a copy of your hunts and I'll edit them to my site at www.justushunting.com
let me know
Rick

It's a dvd cam

was never any software in the box when i purchased it. puchased from the Brick and getting help there was like pulling teeth. Can't find where on the net to download sofware for this particular cam.


Thanks scott

Dufus, check this out and see if this helps
http://www.fixya.com/support/t338235-uploa...achi_bx35a_mini
Rick

Wow, p&ypredator, just went through the preliminary viewing of your hunting video's and congrats on a great job. It will be a little while before I get it done, working on another project right now. But once again great job. should be on the site in a week or two.
Rick

Glad to hear it! I'm also open to some pointers. I know the trailing portion of the video was pretty rough, you really need to walk slowly and keep it steady.

Hey Steve l think you did a good job of taping your hunt.

Steve, it looks like you did your homework on your videos, great all round footage, the only thing you were really missing was a little pre treestand footage, getting to the hunting area, climbing the stand etc...really not a big issue. great B footage and the money shot as well. the only thing I could ask is what kind of head were you using on your cameral arm? at times the panning was a little jerky, again not the end of the world.

I'll have a short video on my site tonight hopefully, tomorrow for sure, check it out and let me know your thoughts.
Rick
again great job Steve.

It's a Manfrotto 701 head. I think the problem was the camera arm, I over tightened the bolts so it doesn't pan as smooth as it should, I've got it fixed for next week. Gooder and I are at back at it looking for more footage. Can't wait to see your edited version.

Nice job on the redemtion doe! She was nice and close.

Steve

Yep, 701 head is definately not the problem. good luck next week
Rick

Rick

Nice work on the editing. I'm itching for turkey season now so i can follow around all of my friends and get some good hunts on video for them. I'm already thinking of different scenes I need to get. A tripod is definitely on my christmas list.

Steve

Thanks Steve, just not possible without good camera work....good going
Rick

I'm alittle late chiming in on this but............HDD or hard drive cameras are not the issue when uploading to your NLE, it's your software. There is nothing wrong with the footage shot on HDD as it is compressed basically the same as tape (that is if comparing High def. footage).
Mini DVD on the other hand is not good as it compresses the footage differently and therefore you get degraded quality when editing. But if you are buying a camera that is less than 3 years old you will not find mini DVD anymore anyways.

The newest trend and best workflow in my opinion are cameras that record to SD card or flash memory, not only do you not have to deal with buying tapes, you also do not have to worry about degradation asosiated with magnetic strip type tapes. Also recording times are longer and video capture for editing is a third of the time. Camera head wear is non-exsistant in these cameras as everything is digitized and there are no moving parts in the recording heads, so the camera should never wear out or need annual cleaning.

I don't know why the OP dislikes HDD cameras so much, but you should really look at the newest offerings as you can get consumer cameras that record both to internal memory and Sd card and with the right capture and editing software it will cut editing time down tremendously. Even pro-sumer model cameras have come out in the past 3 years that record to card, believe me it is a blessing not to have a million tapes in archive.

I get video off my Canon power shot digital camera that would blow the socks off a lot of video cameras