what camera/camcorders do you use ?

[John The Dad]

Dude, this is 2012, as everyone said, we are in an era dominated by DSLR, whatever you do, buy a DSLR.

I shoot everything on my Canon T3i, whatever camera you have , toggle on manual mode for everything (yes, even focus) and learn the basics of photography with Shutter speed / Aperture / ISO , it will make your videos look 3x times better with minimal efforts. Automatic settings are never really good.

I agree. A good DSLR won't set you back as much as a conventional entry level camera but saying that I borrowed a friends Canon 600D to see what it was like.
I was surprised on how nice it was to use but I was disappointed with the optics in the lens. If you buy a canon you really want to get one of their "L" series lenses if you want really crisp footage.
I was on contract with the BBC over the Olympics and I thought I would do a comparison test between the Canon 600D and the Sony HDW650F HD CAM. I borrowed a "L" series lens from a press photographer and and shot some footage.
I was really surprised to find that the 600D footage came very close to the footage from the HDW650F. The main difference was that I could blow up the HDW650F footage far more that the 600D and when put on a large screen the 600D fell short.
But then the Sony HDW650F costs around £45000 pounds and the Canon 600D cost around £550 pounds.
In all I would recommend the Canon 600D. It has all the features and comparable footage of a pro camera for a fraction of the price.

I hope this helps[DOUBLEPOST=1345400515,1345400183][/DOUBLEPOST]P.S.
The Sony HDW650F gets stupidly heavy after it's been sitting on your shoulder for 4 hours.

 

[Hardisk]

Oh , of course the lenses does 80% of the job when it comes to the video quality

If money is not an issue, buy a 50mm lens from Canon (150 euros) THE RESULT WILL EAT YOUR BRAIN OF CUTENESS.