Well, folks, basketball season is upon us again. When did it ever leave, I wonder. As I gear up for this season of basketball, I have another challenge that I have been given. I will be a videographer this season. You see, basketball is big business and college is expensive. After talking to recruiters and trainers I have come to learn that you’ve got to advertise your children. That is, I need to get some video footage of Tony playing basketball so that we can target some schools, they can see, and somewhere within the next couple of years, we can get some scholarships!!! So, I’ve got to put the camera on the sideline for a bit, at least during basketball, and pick up the video camera.
My camera equipment is the latest and greatest, but I have an old video camera. It’s an old Sony Digital Handycam and it uses, of all things, tape! 
The latest, greatest, and easiest cameras to deal with for a computer, without having to buy additional cards, etc, are digital. They can record to memory sticks or even mini DVDs, I think. Anyway, I’m out of my element and my first game is tomorrow night. So, tonight’s mission is to drop Tony off at basketball, go look at the vast array of video cameras, and try to make a decision. Perhaps I’ll make the decision tomorrow, but I’ve got to look tonight.
The goal is to find a camera that is going to give decent quality and that I can get MPEGs from that are suitable for posting on the web. You Tube, here he comes!!!
Any suggestions for cameras and editing software?
Well, off to learn. Hey! When you are asking a college to foot the bill, you’ve got to learn a few new tricks!!!
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5 Responses to “From photographer to videographer”
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I’m using a Canon ZR800 that I paid $179 for back in December. It’s a MiniDV (tape) model and it works fine. For posting on Youtube, it doesn’t really matter what you get because they are gonna compress it and then play it back at a larger size, and you know what happens with digital images when you do that…
I’m using an editing package by Cyberlink called PowerDirector that works fairly well. It’s not the greatest program out there probably, but it works ok for me. You could buy a high def camcorder, but that won’t get you any extra on youtube either. The advantages of owning a hard disk drive camcorder are transfer speed to the PC and capacity. They hold a good bit of video…
Thanks, John. I’m certainly looking for something that I can get to the PC quickly. I’m thinking ‘best of both worlds’. That is, perhaps one that burns directly to DVD. Then, when we get home, my son can watch it on the television. Later, I can rip it to MPEG and also do some editing.
I’ll check into PowerDirector. I think, at this point, that my needs are meager. I wonder if the ones that write directly to memory sticks or perhaps even a hard drive hook directly to the computer via USB 2.0, or perhaps firewire. Hmmm, more investigations.
How do you get your MiniDV video to the computer?
My MiniDV camcorder hooks to the computer via firewire cable. I can also suggest that you give the Windows Movie Maker a try before you go buy software. It may meet your needs and you won’t have to spend $100 to get started editing video…
Not something I know a great deal about, and the latest technology is something I have lost touch with, however, from experience, if you are looking for a cam that records by a mechanical means, that is tape or disc, try to find out about mechanical moise, most cams, sony included, have on board mics which pic up (at incredibly irritating levels) audio from the machine itself, you can buy external mics at a varying range of prices, which will illiminate this, and at the same time improve your results depending on the type of mic omni directional etc, providing said cam has an external mike jack.
And as John says, windows movie maker really isnt too bad as long as you stay away from the silliness and keep it simple.
Paul,
I’ve been video(ing) my son’s hockey for many years now.(This will be his last year). Shooting video is much more complicated and expensive than still photography for equivalent results.
There is really only time and space to make a few general comments. First stay away from interlaced video. Video, that includes motion, such as any sport, looks like crap interlaced. If nothing moves, interlaced looks fine, but then why use a video camera.
Basketball, like hockey is indoors, and as such low light and fast paced, the worst situation for any camera. Just like still cameras you’re going to need a big sensor and high shutter speed. A camera capable of producing decent video is going to cost much more than you’re going to want to pay.
It’s hard to find consumer grade camcorders that shoot progressive and give you any control over exposure and white balance. I have an older camcorder that does all this (Panasonic GS400, it’s not HD).
You’ll have to check out the arenas to decide if you will be able to use a tripod or will have to hand hold. As you probably know the best video is going to be from a tripod. If you select a tripod, you need to get a decent video head for your tripod.
I would hate to be getting into HD right now, it’s going to be tough on a consumer budget.
Here are a few statistics just to make you sick for Standard Definition (SD):
1) 25 hockey games at 45 minutes each require 500 Gbytes storage.
2) A P4 computer takes 4 hours (computer time) to produce a DVD from the digital video.
3) It takes me roughly 5 hours of my time to edit and process one 45 minute game.
4) I took me more than a year to figure out what I needed/wanted to produce from my efforts. (Raw video of the game is boring….)
(HD data should be at least 5 times larger than SD, however I notice that in many cases they have actually reduced the data rate and just like with still cameras more compression does not mean better picture)
Video can be work, if the subject wasn’t my son they would have to pay me big bucks to make video.