Desiring Digital C!

August 3, 2010 1:46 PM

Looking for a good, reasonably priced digital cameras for filming 10 minute segments.

I want to film 10 minute yoga practices to upload onto my website and youtube. These will be done outdoors or in a studio space. I need some feedback on good digital cameras that are available. I am thinking of either purchasing or renting

posted by goalyeehah to Technology (4 answers total)

The Flip is easy to use and takes what I found to be amazingly sharp videos. Even if you are the rankest of amateurs (as am I) you will have no trouble getting great results.
posted by mmf at 2:09 PM on August 3, 2010 [1 favorite]

Flips don't do well in low light [indoors at night, for example]. But I don't know of any cheap cameras that do. Something like a Handycam will give you much better indoor performance (I have an older HDR-HC1 and it runs rings around my Flip, but the latter is much cheaper and more portable). Also the Flips have crap image stabilization, but if you're using a tripod you'll be OK.

So really it comes down to whether your studio space is really well lit. Outdoor (during the day) will look good on a Flip or similar as long as you use a tripod.
posted by wildcrdj at 2:42 PM on August 3, 2010

A friend of mine has the flip and loves it. I'm very happy w/ my Panasonic Lumix camera's video, though.
posted by Lukenlogs at 7:06 PM on August 3, 2010

What's your budget?

A Canon 550D will shoot fantastic video that looks a world ahead of what a Flip will do. A couple of carefully placed lights will put you happily into the pro video range.

If you're renting, it depends what the rental house has to offer. I'd ask their advice, as they tend to know their kit inside out. The Sony EX-1 is very good and tends to be recommended a lot lately, as do the various Canon DSLRs.
posted by Magnakai at 3:37 AM on August 4, 2010