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konjurer Veteran user Iowa 395 Posts 
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I'm looking for an inexpensive (under $150) HD camcorder recommendation. I use it mainly for recording and monitoring my close up practice sessions. It needs to have video out during recording. In other words, the ability to hook up to a TV or PC so I can monitor externally.
I've just purchased a Kodak Xz3 that I am taking back. The 720/60p HD video was stunning. I took it to my son's swimming meet and I loved the camera for a few hours. The flaw is that it automatically flips to the video playback menu when you hook up a composite of HDMI cable. Which makes it almost useless to me as a tool for practicing magic. I've had 3 camcorders, including a cheapo Aiptek digital, and this is the first that doesn't allow video out for monitoring.
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The Great Zoobini Elite user Boulder, Colorado 443 Posts
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I'm not a mind reader but you certainly don't need a HD cam to practice
a cheap used DV cam on ebay should suffice for a whopping $75 try around $500 for a decent HD consumer handycam biglots has a toy HD cam for $39 complete with lovely plastic lens
Meet you in Busker Alley
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Mind_Magic Inner circle The Sunshine State USA 1252 Posts
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I always have problems with Camcorders, try to buy a digital camera with video function.
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Decomposed Eternal Order High Desert 12059 Posts
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Flip HD 8 gig 3rd Generation for 100 bucks. Get it soon cause Cisco quit making em. Other alternative is a Smart phone but you will get hammered with buying plans you may not need.
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tropicalillusions Special user Tulsa Okla 631 Posts
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Anyoned deal with Kodak, I have heard from a friend the kodak ZI8 is nice . looking into the kodak Play touch with the touch screen, any users out there with advice or comments on either of these? Thanks.
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henri loik Regular user Near Chicago, Illinois 136 Posts
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I recently purchased a kodak playsport ZX5. I got it in the mail today, It seems great so far. I got it refurbished for ninety dollars of amazon and bought a tripod too.
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tropicalillusions Special user Tulsa Okla 631 Posts
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Have you played it backon a large screen tv, Does the texture get a bit fuzzy?? give us a review for long shots or distant shots and its quality. I am still checking out my friends Kodak Playtouch and will give a review in a few days.Thanks henri
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henri loik Regular user Near Chicago, Illinois 136 Posts
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Okay. I'll do that as soon as I can. I don't know much about cameras but the playsport Zx5 seems to be great quality to me.
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henri loik Regular user Near Chicago, Illinois 136 Posts
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Okay here is the review. If you're interested in the playsport zx5 you probably want to read in depth reviews from other sources, but here is what I have to say.
First, I would like to know what you exactly want to do, other than practice, but here's my review anyways. I did a practice shoot on a table outside. I had a 24x24 inch close up pad and did some coins and cards magic. It looked good on the tv, and it would be good for practice, which is what I have used it for so far. I thought my retention vanishes were crap until I watched them on the screen and realized they were decent, which gave me the confidence to perform more coin magic. If you can practice outdoors the light is a lot better than inside, but where I live it's pretty cold right now and gets dark fast. The distance shots did get a bit fuzzy on TV, The tv I used was not tremendously large, but an ordinary size. The close up practice was not fuzzy, it was very clear. side note: COnsider getting a tripod for practice. I got a 35 dollar accesory pack for my camera which came with a 50 inch tall telescoping tripod. It is great, you can adjust the height from very short (something like ten inches) to 50, and adjust all the angles of the camera. taht's part one of my review. If you want any more information I'll tell you, I need to go now. |
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tropicalillusions Special user Tulsa Okla 631 Posts
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Good info to share cant wait for part two. I am doing some comparison on the 2 items I have and will try to post this weekend on the playtouch or my old standby JVC camcorder, I am getting tired of tape and having to convert the footage thru the movie box, then having to render in another format to work in Various Video editing programs, Caht Saturday.......
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henri loik Regular user Near Chicago, Illinois 136 Posts
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Now keep in mind that I haven't had this camera for a very long time. About a week. So far it is great though.
Part two of the review: Audio quality: nothing amazing but decent. It is average, and there is no mic jack to plug in a mic. Macro Mode: I don't know what a magician would do with this for practice, but it's great anyways. Basically what Macro Mode is, if you don't know, is very close up video. It is very high definition and beautiful, but it is only for very close up. I think it is commonly used for taking pictures or video of flowers. Google this to see what I mean. Stability: I noticed that the video is very stable even without a tripod. Maybe there is some kind of stabilizer inside it so that the image doesn't shake around during a video. There we go. I think it is a great camera. I love the tripod too. If you want to know anything else just ask. |
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henri loik Regular user Near Chicago, Illinois 136 Posts
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Quote:
On 2012-01-04 21:55, tropicalillusions wrote: By the way, do you know any good free video editing software for Windows? I have movie maker but if anybody has any other reccomendations... |
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tropicalillusions Special user Tulsa Okla 631 Posts
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Free is the key word... next step is something like Roxio, a slight step above windows movie maker , and is is a part of the Roxio 11 or 12 package,, then for windows you can step up to Pinnacle studio which is a pretty good system but does cost, but is moderate in price, Then step up to Adobe premiere, now if you really want a step up, get into Final cut, that is the cats meow, but oh my,,, the price.
If you want to see what Pinnacle can do, just check into my profile and you can click on the youtube link in the profile and it will take you to our youtube page and all our work was done in Pinnacle.. Wish I had a Mac and the final cut. but I am surviving with pinnacle. I plan on doind some comparison shooting with my old JVC cam and the Kodak Playtouch 2morrow and will fill you in on the differences with that camera. Thanks Loik for your input on the kodak that you have. |
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tropicalillusions Special user Tulsa Okla 631 Posts
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Ok Henri and any others that just may be concerned.. I tried the Paytouch by Kodak. Pretty much the same reviews on this small cam as henri has given, I am looking for something to Video our outside performances at Fairs and festivals. If shooting at a small distance, it starts to pixilate pretty bad at the center of the view. Gets Real Grainy. Plus the michrophone picked up a lot of wind chatter, Even if I turned the volume down on Recording level, The gust of wind would over power any verbage. So for me.. it is a NO Go. BUT, if you do close up video and inside video it shoots great and with Clarity on the video. So for you close up guys posting or Blogging it is great. and for use inside is good with the michrophone... you get no static noise.
Also the zoom in feature gets a bit Jerky as well, not to smooth, I compared the Zoom performance to that on My JVC gr-dv500u and I am not happy with the zoom on the Kodak either, but for close-up shots pretty good. If you google the Kodak Playtouch and read the reviews they are pretty close to what I have seen, so the reveiws are or can be believed. On the Play touch, to get the touch screen, they have advanced in screen touch, but gave up on some video clarity. Hope this helps anyone like it has me. Some say to go with the Kodak ZI8, it has done good, just no touch screen. I had initially had some issues with my old JVC which was making me look into a replacement, but now that I got it out to compare ... I dicovered it was in Demo mode which was messing with my zoom in and out feature.Now I got it out of DEMO mode and all seems to work well, So Richard, I will be working on the Load bag video for your New Livestock production as promised. Hopefull this video can be placed in the load bag purchase so the new owners can see the Big load just going right in and help in understanding the simplicity of this bag and how awesome it is.... |
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henri loik Regular user Near Chicago, Illinois 136 Posts
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Quote:
On 2012-01-09 23:52, tropicalillusions wrote: This is a pretty accurate review. It is pretty much the same thing for the playsport. |
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henri loik Regular user Near Chicago, Illinois 136 Posts
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TropicalIllusions, you seem to know about video editing software, so I have a question. when I upload a video to my computer it is an mp4 format. I want to open it in movie maker but also edit the sound of the video using audacity. HOw do I do that?
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tropicalillusions Special user Tulsa Okla 631 Posts
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Lay your video in the video track, do your video editing. then Take that video file and convert it into an MP3 audio or what ever files Audacity works with. then lay that audio file into your Music track, Be sure to Line up or match the video and music tracks, This is why I say to edit video fist, so if you cut out any footage, then the sounds that were originally with that footage goes to. So edit video, then convert into file that audacity works with to do your Fades of in and out with the original audio from the converted file. . Then you can always just use the Mich. input to do any voice over where may be needed. If confused, just send a PM for the next go around, It has been a while since I have used WMM so if anyone out there can chime in... Please do to help out our friend Henri.. If I remember correctly, WMM or Roxio, does not split the original video into 2 tracks of the original audio and video. So that's why you convert the video to an Mp3 audio to capture the sound then lay it into the music track and line it all up. CONFUSED?????? send a PM. Good luck.
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henri loik Regular user Near Chicago, Illinois 136 Posts
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It makes sense. Now I have to find a software that converts to mp3. Thank you so much.
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tropicalillusions Special user Tulsa Okla 631 Posts
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Henri. plenty of free software on the net. Also be sure to check what sort of files that your Sound editing software works with before you get your conversion software/ Most of the free software works great from the web. Keep in touch and let me know how things turn out.You can always shoot me a PM.
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Posted: Dec 20, 2010 03:10 pm 