Michael,
Another option that you may wish to consider for your use out on the
water is a camera like our Pentax Optio W10 or the newer W30.
These little digital still cameras have finally reached the point
where their video quality is good enough to give the bigger, heavier,
more expensive Mini-DV video cameras a run for their money in many
situations. My wife and I use ours all the time to video each other
while out on the water windsurfing. Being waterproof and so slim and
light I let it dangle from my wrist as I windsurf and then whip it up
and take photos and video one-handed as we zoom along the water.
Here are some example photos:
http://mart.ozmac.com/Windsurfing/PinjarraMob/Pages/15.html
Unfortunately I can't upload some sample movies to our website
because ozmac.com isn't allowing FTP uploads at the moment it seems.
With 30fps and 640x480 resolution and image stabilisation, it gives
amazingly good quality results and the sound is pretty good through
the water-proof microphone and it doesn't need a big bulky waterproof
case as the camera itself is fully waterproof. The camera saves
videos as Quicktime movies which can be imported straight off the SD
card into iMovie in a shorter amount of time than it takes to capture
a mini-DV tape in real-time over Firewire into iMovie.
It's true that at 640x480, the resolution isn't quite the same as PAL
DV (720x576), but it is almost the same as DV NTSC (720x486) which
because of it's non-square pixels gets squished anyway when displayed
on a square-pixel computer monitor.
These are the specs:
- Waterproof for 15 minutes continuously submerged to a depth of
1.5m. New W30 model goes to 3m deep for 2hrs underwater.
- 640x480 30 frames per second video (not small and jerky 15fps like
most digital still cameras)
- With a 2GB SD card it can record a good 35 minutes of continuous
video footage at the highest quality setting. whipping out a full SD
card and slipping a new empty one in is far quicker and safer than
ejecting Mini-DV tapes out on a boat.
- 3x Optical zoom
- 7 megapixel still photos
- very slim and small
- saves video clips as Quciktime movies that can be imported into
iMovie with very little quality degradation.
- built-in anti-shake for videos as well as photos (vital feature!)
- large 2.5" LCD screen is bright enough to frame shots out on the
water while bounding over waves
- 230 minutes of playback time on one battery charge
- AV out to playback video on TV
Review:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_reviews/optio_w10.html
Pentax Optio W30 review:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2007_reviews/optio_w30.html
We considered the Olympus waterproof cameras like the Olympus Stylus
720 & 720 SW but they are still limited to 15 frames per second video
which is unacceptably jerky compared to PAL Mini-DV cameras 25fps or
the Pentax Optio at 30fps.
For most of our video work that doesn't require greater than 3x
optical zoom, we have stopped using our nice high quality Canon DV
video camera because the ability to switch between high quality 7
megapixel photos and very decent quality video in the one very
compact device is worth every penny.
:-)
-Mart
On 10/05/2007, at 6:53 PM, Michael Hawkins wrote:
I¹m looking for a digital video camera that I can download from using
Firewire 400. Apple¹s website lists very few, and none from
Panasonic or
Samsung.
The cameras that I¹m considering are:
Sony DCR HC28e
Canon MV 960
Panasonic NV GS27
Canon MD 120
Samsung VP D361i
All budget priced: I¹ll be using them to teach intellectually and
physically
disabled people how to row, so don¹t want to lose too much money if
the
camera falls into the river.
I¹d welcome any comments about any of these or others in the less
than $500
range.
Thanks
Michael Hawkins.
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-Mart
------------------------------------
Martin Hill
email: mart "at" ozmac.com
homepages: http://mart.ozmac.com
Mb: 0417-967-969 hm: (08)9314-5242
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