Camcorder Recommendation for Badminton

Discussion in 'Badminton Photography' started by Shiryu, Mar 20, 2007.

  1. Neil Nicholls

    Neil Nicholls Regular Member

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    depends on the bitrate I guess.
    On a single sided DVD, 4.7 Gbytes, you get 60 minutes at 9.2 Mbits/second
    (+ sound at something like 128k)

    9.2 Mb/s is quite high quality for normal TV
    4.6 Mb/s is still good (supposed to be better than VHS)
    for recording from TV, I find 3.0 Mb/s is still pretty good
     
  2. Hierkommtnils

    Hierkommtnils Regular Member

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    I use a Sony DVD-Handycam, which burns direct on mini-dvd (30min). Its a easy way...

    I have won my camcorder in a competition of Powerade :D
     
  3. martin8768

    martin8768 New Member

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    get a Canon ZR-500 or ZR-600 its the best camera for the value, uses MiniDV and its better then a 800$ Sony handycam at 1/2 the price about check them out
     
  4. yoyomonkey

    yoyomonkey Regular Member

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    canon hv20, HD badminton. :)
     
  5. carlo

    carlo Regular Member

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    It seems some cameras these days have a "super slow motion" function that allow you to film at a higher frame rate for a few seconds (several Sony handycams like 5E etc seem to have this). I'm not an expert though so maybe I'm being fooled by clever advertising.

    Has anybody tried using this to film badminton practice? Is it useful at all to have 120 frame per second instead of the usual 25-30?

    I guess just watching yourself play at a normal speed should be helpful to see just how bad you are, but slow motion can help you analyse specific movements and hopefully make better corrections.

    Or do you feel that for badminton 30fps are enough? (after all we're not studying the areodynamics of butterflies...)
     
  6. taneepak

    taneepak Regular Member

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    The type of camcorder or video recorder to chhose will depend on its end use. If you want to record tournamnet matches like the super series, the best is a dvd recorder to record from cable or tv. If you want to record badminton for training purposes, the best is a quality P & S digital camera with at least a 28mm to 140mm zoom lens that can record in movie mode at 30fps. You can then buy an inexpensive portable dvd playback machine (one that measures about 5" to 7") for playback. The combination of the two is a powerful teaching tool and can be used instantly at court side. There is nothing like instant playback of, say a power shot played with a bent arm vs one played with a straight arm.
     
  7. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    Just met somebody who had a JVC HD camcorder.

    Some problems he has had:
    1) slow focussing
    2) slightly inaccurate colours.

    That's with 3CCD.

    He said go for Sony or Panasonic
     
  8. ants

    ants Regular Member

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    I'm planing to get this SOny High Definition Camcorder HDR-CX7. But it runs on memory stick. I used to have a JVC HDD camcorder.. but it crashed.
     
  9. A2JLP

    A2JLP Regular Member

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    I would recommend the Panasonic NV GS 5000. I've used this at the Sudirman Cup Glasgow from the audience and I was very pleased with the results. Tripods were not allowed when using VC's so the footage was handheld balanced on the railings or on my knee. The anti shake mechanism was invaluable. The picture quality is superb with 3 CCD's and you can take stills during and after shooting from the footage. The stills are great for web use. A leica lens and 12x optical zoom are more than adequate for most occasions and it has good low light capability. The zoom is smooth, and the manual focus ring on the lens is a reasonable size to grasp and operate. Some users have been a bit critical of the camera but with full control (aperture / shutter speed combinations) and several manual modes including sports mode, you have to spend time deciding on the best settings. I don't understand anyone critisicing the quality of image or sound.

    One thing often overlooked is how easy is it to transfer video to computer. This camera uses AVI files and comes with software that works. One nice feature is the program to link the camera to a laptop by USB and 'see' and capture live. Great for coaching. Load the image into V1 home for instance and you hava a great budget video analysis tool. Replaying in slomo is surprisingly good in terms of image quality.

    Search on Google for specs and reviews but some of the user reviews didn't do the camera justice (IMO).
     
  10. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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  11. carlo

    carlo Regular Member

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    I agree with cheung. Everytime I read a review on a model that seems to have what I want I discover immediately afterwards that it has just gone out of production, and a different (more expensive) one has taken its place. Alas it's much more complicated than buying a racket!

    Though for this money you could get twenty hours of 1to1 instruction with a top coach (at least where I live), so I haven't made up my mind yet....
     
  12. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    A firendhas recommended to me the AVCHD format.

    Sony looks quite good.

    I need to get something soon. My old miniDV seems to falling apart.
     
  13. demolidor

    demolidor Regular Member

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    Any Sony with an Exmor (R) sensor will do the trick [​IMG]. The only thing AVCHD has over MPEG2 (HDV) is better compressability imo.
    Then there is the choice between harddisk and flash memory/memorysticks (lighter & cheaper for camera only). Keep in mind the average for a badminton match in full HD is around 5GB ;).
    Too bad most (all?) HDV cams seem to record on miniDV only, a 60GB harddrive is so convenient :).
     
    #33 demolidor, Dec 26, 2009
    Last edited: Dec 26, 2009
  14. demolidor

    demolidor Regular Member

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    HDV is on it's way out though as far as consumer cams are concerned. Sony doesn't have one in the current lineup, maybe Canon still has one this year but will probably be (one of) the last time.
     
  15. ctjcad

    ctjcad Regular Member

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    Go for it..

    ..i have a feeling you're shopping for the After Christmas or After New Year's Sale??..:confused:;)

    Sony, Panny and Canon are all good. As a matter of fact, i bought the Canon Vixia HG20 (hard drive format), early this yr. Price and zoom capability are quite good & reasonable. And looking at the prices, they haven't gone down much either. IMO, the technology is quite worth the price.

    If you want to search a bit, you can go to this site. It's the one i used to search, prior to purchasing the Canon camcorder.
    http://www.camcorderinfo.com/ratings.php#

    Good luck & enjoy your new tech toy!:cool:
     
  16. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    That's a good site Chris. Thanks for the link. It will take me some time to browse through.
     
  17. red00ecstrat

    red00ecstrat Regular Member

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    Can u guys tell me the best way to back up my videos from DV tapes. Should I convert them all to avi files?
    I know the easiest way is to back them up with a DVD recorder. And I was told the VOB file can still be edited with some softwares. But I really wanna know the quality and the size difference between AVI and VOB files. Thanks!
    Sorry for an off topic reply.
     
  18. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    This is exactly the problem I have as well.

    The DVD recorder option is simple but slow to edit. Then there is a need to archive as I want to archive on HDD as well as DVD.
     
  19. ctjcad

    ctjcad Regular Member

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    Hmm..for these..

    - Stefan, i think you meant to ask which file format is better to convert the DV tapes into, VOB or AVI? IMO, all has their good and not so good.
    - As for saving or converting them to AVI files, imo, they're only useful if you want to watch the video w/out a DVD or if you want to upload your video to a broadcast website (like youtube).
    Overall, i'd say the AVI file is more flexible in terms of how one wants to watch it.
    - VOB and AVI files can be edited with some softwares.
    - As for the file size between an AVI or VOB file, well, it depends. If i recall, if the VOB is uncompressed, then the file will be the same if not much larger as an AVI file. However, there are new options which will compress a VOB format file. Quality-wise, both should be roughly the same.
    Cheung, not only that, the High Def. video (esp. a Blu-ray version) has a .m2ts file format as its default recording format. Thus, if you want to watch the video, you may have to convert them, first, to an AVI or VOB format.
    From there, you can do your editing before deciding your final video format.

    Personally, i'd convert any kind of digital video file to an .avi format, first. From there, i can decide whether to do any additional editing or leave them as they are in my HD or save/convert them to a DVD/.vob format.
     
    #39 ctjcad, Dec 28, 2009
    Last edited: Dec 28, 2009
  20. demolidor

    demolidor Regular Member

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    The best option is to use the software that came with the camera and import it to your pc in it's original format. Once on PC you can probably do anything with it that you want, perhaps even with the provided software.

    Windows Movie Maker seems to be able to capture DV through firewire [​IMG].
     
    #40 demolidor, Dec 28, 2009
    Last edited: Dec 28, 2009

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