2.1: The Camera

You probably already have a sufficient video capturing device. It is not necessary to buy something fancy and/or expensive. Even many smart phones have good video capabilities these days.

If you are looking for a new camera, check out this review: Best Point and Shoot Cameras for Video Quality (according to PC World)

Make sure to test your camera before you begin filming
When testing your own camera or one you are interested in buying, you should play around with it before committing to using it as your video project camera. If you plan to buy online, you should still go into a camera shop to test the model you are interested in. Take your computer with you, so you can view the final videos on them.

Tests to perform:

  1. Take a few videos indoors and outdoors.
  2. Take videos with a tripod and handheld. Take a few steps while taping. Play around with panning.
  3. Take a video indoors of someone reading from a book. Have them stand relatively close to the camera, then have them continue talking while slowly walking away from the camera backward.

Then upload videos onto your computer. Watch them.

  • How is the sound quality, indoors and outdoors?
  • Can you hear much background noise?
  • Is the camera steady when you handheld? (some cameras have image stabilization, which is a very good thing to shop for!)
  • How is the sound quality for the person reading? How far away could they go without quality being compromised?

Compare these two videos. They were taken at the same time with two different types of cameras. There's not a great deal of image quality difference, but the sound quality is quite different; listen to the rain hitting the hoophouse in these clips.

 Video using a Canon Powershot:

Video using a FLIP MinoHD: