Shooting video

[Josh Murfield]

As some of you may know from my posts, I am still a newbie chaser trying to get settled in with the proper equipment. For photos I have just been using a simple point and shoot compact digital camera, and for video a 6 year old regular analog Hi8 camcorder. I want to get a better camera to get nicer still shots, of course, and am also wanting to be able to shoot digital video. I'm on a budget, and have been looking at a Sony Cybershot DSC-H20 camera that has a 38mm-380mm zoom lens and can shoot HD video.

So I know this would be a great camera for the still shots, but would this be a good alternative to a camcorder for video- do any of you just use a camera similar to this to shoot your video? Or is there really no alternative to having a true camcorder for that in regards to the quality of video you are able to shoot?

 

[Jason Foster]

For any new person, it isn't always a good idea to go all big an expensive. Keep the cost down. You should be alright for the most part with the camera's video option for your own review and for posting to the internet. It might even be good enough for burning to DVD for a small and quick highlight video you hand out to family and friends.

 

[Skip Talbot]

I used to use my still camera's video feature when I first started chasing, and it worked Ok. I even got my first tornado with it. You are going to be missing a lot of features that a regular camcorder would have, but you can get by. Make sure to get a large memory stick (8 or 16 GB) as those video files get large real quick.