Any bright ideas?
9:09 pm on the 26th of August, 2007I’m on the look out for a camera/camcorder/webcam that I can use in my Graphic Communication classes and would like any advice/ideas people might have.
The idea is that it will be rigged up over a drawing board with the output displayed through a digital projector. How it works is open.
Ideally it will perform well in varied lighting conditions and will have an AV output.
Any suggestions? Could I go with a swish webcam and run it through a PC without losing too much quality? Or I could try to find a compact digital camera that runs from mains and doesn’t turn off automatically when no buttons get pressed for a while? Or should I just try to find the wee bit extra cash to get a cheapish DV Camera?
Or, does anyone have an expertise in making pinhole cameras?
Tags: cameras, Graphic-Communication
August 26th, 2007 at 9:41 pm on the 26th of August, 2007
Was looking into this just today and got some great advice from Mark Pentleton that echoes some of the things I had seen elsewhere:
I bought a camera recently - the Sony HDR-HC7. It’s a very nice
camera - uses mini DV tapes and can record in both HD (1080p) and DV.
It’s a bit bulkier than some of the more recent DV cameras, but this
seems to be standard on HD cameras.
I think the future seems to be SD-based recording, eg. on a 4gb SD
card you could get a significant amount of footage. I *think* it’s
called AVCHD, but I’m not 100% sure. The limitations on SD-based
stuff seem to be changing - it’s still not possible to edit this
footage on Final Cut, but iMovie 08 can now take it. I guess Final
Cut isn’t too far away.
SD over mini DV tape obviously slims down the camera, and ultimately
there are no moving tape parts. I’d not go for hard disc recording btw.
Hope Mark doesn’t mind me quoting him here - his advice is nearly always spot on, although it might not be exactly what you are looking for.
E
August 27th, 2007 at 10:05 am on the 27th of August, 2007
Stuart I am pretty sure that Technical Ed department at Banchory Academy in Aberdeenshire have this set up you could get in touch with them and find out what they have.
August 27th, 2007 at 7:05 pm on the 27th of August, 2007
Stuart
We use Panasonic NV Camera’s Setup with a quite large tripod and av cable going straight to the video feed of the projector. The tripod means that we can position the camera where we want it.
These are about £160 at the moment. ( or eBay current bid £27 for the perfetly good older model)
We went for opitcal zoom with macro capability for close up work.
Our science dept went for a goosenck visualiser camera which works very well but doesn’t offer the flexibility for other uses, like as a video camera.
August 27th, 2007 at 7:26 pm on the 27th of August, 2007
Thanks for your comments, I was tending towards a camcorder already, webcams and cameras both present problems. If I can pick up one cheap then great - budget as always is the main constraint.
Iain, I’d already had a brief conversation about this with someone at Knox Academy who had come from Banchory (Mr Hunter? - I’m terrible for remembering names), small world. I’m hoping to get in touch with him soon for tips on lighting and other things.
August 28th, 2007 at 7:37 pm on the 28th of August, 2007
Bid for and won a Panasonic NV, only a snip more than £27. I’ve still to see if it’s any good of course but it’s a start at least.
August 28th, 2007 at 9:21 pm on the 28th of August, 2007
Stuart pass on my regards to Jim Hunter when you see him next. If you want to operate a video camera without it going on to standby when the buttons are not pressed just use it without a tape in it. Ideal if you only want to use it live in the classroom when connected to the projector not so ideal if you want to record the event.
August 29th, 2007 at 7:46 pm on the 29th of August, 2007
How are you thinking of rigging this up? Would it be a permanent fixture from the ceiling or on some sort of table top stand that can get moved about? Let me know how it goes. What have other people done?
August 29th, 2007 at 8:20 pm on the 29th of August, 2007
Hey Krysia, I was thinking something along the lines of a rig set up on a desk, perhaps made out of steel square tube, also maybe being able to raise the height of the bar above the desk. The rig itself will be fairly portable but the bits on it will be fixed. I think I’ll be mounting the camera fairly centrally on a horizontal beam, with some spot lights either side. I’d like to be able to make it a fairly stand alone unit with the minimum of cables trailing from it, hopefully just a single power cable and a single signal cable.
Fingers crossed it’ll arrive tomorrow and I’ll have time to set something up on Friday afternoon. I’ll get some photos on flickr of the experiments.
September 5th, 2007 at 8:15 pm on the 5th of September, 2007
Did you get the Camcorder?
September 5th, 2007 at 8:24 pm on the 5th of September, 2007
Got it last Friday, still working on setting it up but I’m going to try and make use of it tomorrow tomorrow doing some S1 Graphics.
It’s in really good nick for the price I paid and should do all we want for the moment. I’m waiting for a couple of extra cables to arrive and when they do I’ll be starting on getting the pupils to make some videos of things like how to use different tools, spurred on by a conversation on Friday with Ewan.
Do you have any tips? I think lighting is going to be my biggest issue in the Graphics room.
September 5th, 2007 at 8:59 pm on the 5th of September, 2007
Only tips with lighting would be making some basic reflectors from Cardboard and tin foil.
We are just using webcams attached to the UMPC’s to do the same thing
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