Camcorders vs. DSLR cameras

[Tim Vasquez]

I am curious whether anyone has done any side-by-side comparisons of camcorders vs. DSLRs in typical scenes, or have heard of this being done.

I still have a Canon Vixia HF R500 ($300 new) and have managed to get some good results out of it. Here is some video (not mine) showing what it's capable of when on a tripod. I keep looking at the DSLRs and procrastinating.

I know the more expensive units will do better in low light, but I'm not sure what more I'd get with an entry-level camera like the SL1 aside from quicker access to focus and exposure and the ability to put another lens on (which I haven't really needed to do). At what price point does better performance in low light start coming in?

 

[Matt Hunt]

I'm going all DSLR this year. I've gone through a lot of sample videos on YouTube... of course I don't know about how much file compression these have, but... it seems that you really have to be in the range of a professional level camcorder to equal the quality of even an entry-level DSLR.

Here's some footage from the Stamford, TX tornado shot on my Nikon D500:

I also own a Nikon D5100 which shoots great HD video, and is much less expensive. The downside with most DSLR's is the lack of image stabilization, and it's not as simple as turning it on and hitting record, as you can do with a camcorder. But if you're planning on shooting with a tripod, that's a moot point.

Low-light performance on a DSLR will depend on how high your ISO is. The faster the lens you're using is, the less you'll need to bump up the ISO. You'll also get less noise from a full-frame vs. a crop sensor, but at a higher cost. Unless you're shooting a storm after sunset, I don't think it'll be an issue very often.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

I don't have a good direct answer to your question Tim, just my 'experiences' so far. The Sony 1" sensors found in the CX900, AX100, PXW-X70, etc do extremely well in low light. The video picture is pretty incredible, especially tornado footage in 1080/60p on the XAVCS codec. Night time shooting is pretty superb too.

Flip over to the DSLR and the picture is definitely as good if not better, but the motion just doesn't seem to translate very well. The controls are tough. On a tripod, the DSLR is probably the superior choice. Add motion and get a real camcorder.

 

[Dan Robinson]

I remember shopping for cameras when I got into TV ENG in 2003. I could only afford low-end prosumers (the bare minimum to get by), but I always looked at the big TV cameras on B&H to geek out on the specs. One of the big sellers in high-end broadcast TV those days was the Sony XDCAM. It was a big shoulder-mount pro camera - $50,000 for the body and lens only. Now, you can get XDCAM cameras under 2 grand - specs that cost you a second mortgage 15 years ago.

My Canon T6i can do great HD video, I've shot some timelapses with it. With a DSLR, it is really nice to be able to capture video with any lens you want. I could probably get by just fine shooting video with it. I need a proper video camera for these reasons, though:

- Ergonomics and ease of focus/settings change when shooting in chaotic storm situations
- Good sound built-in (DSLRs need external MIC setups)
- Ability to shoot video and/or stills simultaneously
- Shooting archive footage in 4K

 

[Tim Vasquez]

Matt -- The D500 footage is great... the first thing that I noticed is the excellent color saturation in low light. But I do wonder how the cheaper cameras would perform in that situation... a D500 is out of my range as I mostly am just looking for additional photos for my books (just textbooks) and gee-whiz clips for YouTube.

Ben -- Yes, good motion is a must-have and I'm a huge advocate of that. Oddly enough the Vixia I have has amazing motion tracking... coming to Chasercon I played around with it on the road (as passenger) and found I was able to shoot traffic down the road with full zoom, and it managed to hold the frame like it was on a tripod. I was blown away, my older Sony Hi-8s with motion were not this good. I wonder if the cheap DSLRs with motion perform as well as this.

Dan -- YES, I've been looking at the t6i... I even put it on my shopping cart this evening and mulled it over. No, I'm going to have to wait until some sort of windfall comes in. It's tempting though. Since you mentioned the ergonomics issue, are there any annoying problems here? It would seem with the focus it's a matter of just flipping the MF/AF switch, or staying at MF infinity.

 

[Matt Hunt]

Tim - I did some editing in Premiere Pro as well, and bumped up saturation a tad on the footage of the tornado. The rest of the video was untouched, however. As far as the motion, you want to shoot with a shutter speed that is twice what your fps is. So, with most video it's shot at 30 fps, and you want your shutter speed to be 1/60. If it's slower, you'll get blur. If it's too fast, the video looks choppy. That's one of the biggest challenges with a DSLR, and as Dan pointed out, in the hectic situations of storm chasing, you may lack some awareness as to your settings and end up with video that is of lower quality than you'd hoped for. This is where knowing your camera well, and using it frequently will help. If you can change the settings with your eyes closed, you'll be much more apt to get it right, even in the chaos of storm chasing. I would like a dedicated camcorder where I can just hit on and record, but I'd like equal quality to my DSLR's, and for right now I just don't want to spend that money, when I can already have that high quality video with my current equipment, anyway.

 

[Bill Hark]

Tim, I mainly use dedicated video cameras (Sony Z1 and Canon HV20) but will shoot occasionally with my Nikon D600 that also shoots HD video. The DSLR can use very wide angle lenses that are great for getting a different perspective on a storm. The biggest issues are the stabilization as discussed earlier and focus. I can't just immediately put my DSLR into infinity as I can with my video cameras. Because of that, I have blown shots due to focusing. I'll still mainly use my video cameras and just use the DSLR for specialty video shots.

 

[Tim Vasquez]

Bill and gang... I was looking at the lens on this Canon t6i... does this solve the instant focus problem? It looks to me like you just keep it on "MF" and crank it to one side each time you turn it on, and presumably it is then at infinity. I did look at the D600 and it appears to have a different set of lenses, without autofocus settings like this.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Tim, I've found modern lenses are not as friendly with infinity focus, that is, most don't have the "stop" on the ring at infinity like older ones, and the infinity marking on the ring isn't very trustworthy. I always have to autofocus lock on a distant point (usually a streetlight or car headlight) then switch to manual to hold it there. All of the Canon lenses I've used are like this, I can't vouch for Nikons or Sonys.

 

[Paul Knightley]

I have a Panasonic X920 Full HD camcorder, which I bought in 2013. It performs very well (especially as it has taken a few knocks too!!) - the colour is, perhaps, a bit flat, but easily tweaked in Premier Pro. I use an external mic, as camcorder mics sound horrendous in wind (I wish more people would do this too!!). The image stabilisation is very good indeed, and hand-held footage is much better than with an unstabilised model. I tend to be more choosy about what to film these days, and do a lot of timelapsing - this model has a timelapse function, which makes this very easy! The quality is a little lower than if I just recorded in 1080p, but not by much. Of course, I cannot change lenses, but it's been more than sufficient for my needs.

For a stills cam, I have a Sony RX10 - this also does very nice 1080p video (60fps) - the most recent model (Mk3) can do 1000fps slow-mo bursts of up to 2 seconds. Again, a fixed lens.

The video below shows the timelapse output from the Panasonic - mostly from the function, but a little is sped-up 'normal' video. After about 3 mins 30, it switches to GoPro footage. The footage has been processed a bit in Premier Pro, to bring the colours out a bit, but not by much.

 

[Devin Pitts]

I use an external mic, as camcorder mics sound horrendous in wind (I wish more people would do this too!!).

Which external mic would you recommend? I have a Panasonic HC-VX870K camcorder for reference.

 

[Paul Knightley]

Which external mic would you recommend? I have a Panasonic HC-VX870K camcorder for reference.

Good question! I have the same mic I bought back in 2001 - I am at work just now, and so can't quote which it is - but it would be somewhat unhelpful as I very much doubt it's still made!

I have looked at upgrading/modernising with a new mic, but have not done so thus far. Rode mics seem to get very good reviews, and I've been tempted to get one.

To be clear, the mic I currently use is not especially high quality, and was not expensive - I think I could get even better audio with a newer model. But the fact it has a wind protector means the wind noise is very much reduced, and the pitch of the wind noise is much lower too, which gives a much better aural experience for the viewer.

I'm sure others on here would be able to give a recommendation - my main one would be to get a mic with a decent wind protector - and one which is stereo rather than mono.

 

[Jordan Doane]

I don't have a good direct answer to your question Tim, just my 'experiences' so far. The Sony 1" sensors found in the CX900, AX100, PXW-X70, etc do extremely well in low light. The video picture is pretty incredible, especially tornado footage in 1080/60p on the XAVCS codec. Night time shooting is pretty superb too.

Flip over to the DSLR and the picture is definitely as good if not better, but the motion just doesn't seem to translate very well. The controls are tough. On a tripod, the DSLR is probably the superior choice. Add motion and get a real camcorder.

Do you have any tornado footage from using the Sony ax100? I was looking into getting its twin brother the CX900 just would like to see how well it preforms for storm video.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

Do you have any tornado footage from using the Sony ax100? I was looking into getting its twin brother the CX900 just would like to see how well it preforms for storm video.

I bought the CX900 a couple weeks ago and have taken 1 video

Sent from my XT1650 using Stormtrack mobile app

 

[Darren Lo]

I'm late to the discussion of infinity focus, but it's worth mentioning that photographic zoom lenses typically need to be refocused after you change the zoom setting, even if they were previously focused at infinity. Only parfocal lenses (e.g. video lenses) will hold focus through a zoom, but you pay a hefty weight and cost penalty in order to gain that capability.