"Happy little trees..."

February 29, 2012 8:06 AM

Help me design the best video setup for recording myself drawing/painting.

I'd like to record some tutorial videos of myself drawing and painting. I usually work at a drafting table, not an easel, so the camera needs to be able to see over my shoulder or top-down.

The videos would be at least an hour long each, consisting of a few long continuous takes edited together. Their final destination is probably going to be the web, but I'd like to keep my options open for making DVDs in the future.

Here's what I have now:
- copy stand with "downshooter" camera screw (you screw it to the tripod mount and it points the camera perpendicular to the work surface)
- GorillaPod tripod, though I've never used it
- Desktop PC with Windows 7
- 2 bright fluorescent lamps on articulated arms for illuminating the work surface
- crappy low-res webcam with no tripod mount, I've just been taping it to things to hold it in place

Here's what I need:
- either a high-resolution webcam or a camcorder, which needs to have a standard 1/4" tripod mount.
- maybe a conventional tripod which would be tall enough to shoot over my shoulder, but that might not be necessary.

Budget:
- I'd prefer to spend $250 or under. Is this realistic?

posted by overeducated_alligator to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

You could probably even do it with a cheap point and shoot camera that films in hd, there are quite a few cheap ones on the market.
posted by revikim at 8:25 AM on February 29, 2012

Would a GoPro be overkill? The original versions are about $200, and you can get a tripod adapter for a couple of bucks.
posted by backseatpilot at 8:47 AM on February 29, 2012

Would an iPod touch or iPhone be good for this, you suppose?
posted by overeducated_alligator at 9:32 AM on February 29, 2012

With fluorescent lights the white balance can be altered and there seem to be some problems generally with (some) iphones and white balance. To me when capturing a drawing it's quite important that white is white. If you can set that (manually or not) with an iphone, i don't see why you couldn't do that. (Not an expert, but there's probably an app for that)

I think if you already own an iphone/ipod touch you could try using that, however i'm not sure i would buy one for this purpose, added benefits or not. Cameras that have more options / manual modes would probably be the better way to go.
posted by revikim at 9:55 AM on February 29, 2012

Maybe something like this nifty little thing.
posted by revikim at 9:58 AM on February 29, 2012