HEYDAY
SKATEBOARDING

Alright so you’ve been browsing this sick site and you want to start posting footage of your own. How do you go about doing it? Grabbing your sisters digital camera (when she’s not in front of a mirror with it taking pictures for her myspace) and using the video feature in it? Not a good idea. Te quality will make other people never want to see your footage again even if it’s a 360 flip down the Hollywood High 16. You could find your dad’s old Sony Hi8 (or even VHS-c) camera, clean the dust off and get on your way to making a great video…but oh wait…it’s 2006. Who’s using Hi8 and VHS-c these days? Not even soccer dads will reduce themselves to using antique electronics such as those. You need to go digital. There are several options in digital video recording; Digital8, MiniDv, HDD (Hard drive) and the infamous mini-DVD cameras.

The obvious choices here are probably gonna be the hard drive cameras or the mini-DVD cameras for there ease of use. For hard drive cameras, you never have to buy tapes, how great is that? Not great at all. Terrible actually. These cameras record in Mpeg2 format. For those that aren’t too computer savvy let me put it in simple terms… Mpeg2 sucks. Now for mini-DVD it seems great because all you have to do is shoot and throw it onto a DVD player and start watching without the hassles of rewinding and fast forwarding. Sad thing is the video quality on a DVD player sucks as well and is a pain to edit with (at least in my experiences but I’ve heard positive things about it from soccer dads). So now we’ve narrowed it down to the not-so-obvious two possibilities including the Digital8 cameras and the MiniDv cameras. Digital8 does in-fact produce decent quality because it’s firewire compatible so you can retain full video quality once captured on a computer. However, most digital8 cameras have small CCD’s (1/6’’ usually, refer to my Vocabulary list for definition), which makes them bad in low light, and produce bad colors. Now MiniDv is the only one left. What makes it stand out from the other formats? MiniDv cameras come in a range of different CCD sizes from large to small like those on the digital8 cameras. MiniDv cameras also offer a full line of manual settings on many of the compatible cameras. Even the low-end MiniDv cameras have manual settings such as white balance.

Now that you have a better idea of which camera format is the best for you (you better be thinking MiniDv for the sake of this camera buying guide), you need to find which particular camera you want to buy. The key things you should look at when buying a new camera are; price, size, efficiency, manual features, lens size and other smaller things which will be discussed later on.

In my opinion, buying a brand new video is not worth it. Ebay is you’re friend, don’t forget that. Many people are very sketchy about buying cameras off the Internet. For some reassurance, you can check the store ratings on resellerratings.com and find out based on customer reviews if the website is legitimate. If you find something that looks to be a good deal on eBay, look at the person’s feedback. Click on his name and check what other transactions he’s been involved in. The person may have a legitimate looking deal on a video camera, but only have 10 feedback points. If you look at their past feedback you can see the other things they’ve sold and whether or not the buyers had good experiences. If after doing all this, you don’t know if a certain eBay auction is legitimate or not, then feel free to consult me via Private Messages on Hdskate.com or by AIM.

If this your first camera and you’re still pretty young to the point that you’re parents don’t trust you with buying an expensive camera, you’ll probably want to stay in the ballpark of $200 and $250. Like stated before, a camera isn’t something I would buy brand new. The reason is that cameras lose value faster than a Korean made car. As long as a camera isn’t used professionally or anything, it will be safe to buy it online. The change of it breaking down will be roughly the same as with a new camera. Anyways, let’s start talking about what camera to get.

For those little kids who don’t know much about cameras they should get a low level camera such as the Canon Optura 10. The Canon Optura 10 is widely sought after as a beginner camera because it’s fairly inexpensive (no more than $250 used). What really makes people recommend this camera however is because of the manual settings, filter thread size, and ease of use. The manual settings consist of White Balance, Shutter Speed and a hint of manual exposure. These settings are very necessary because if your idea of filming is pulling your camera out of a bag and pressing the record button, you’re doing everything VERY wrong. You need to set the colors of the camera by white balancing and the shutter speed is necessary to adjust manually so you can get the best picture possible. The filter thread size on this camera is also great because it’s 37mm which means the Century Optics Baby Death fits on there perfectly. Also, this camera is easy to use even with manual settings and editing is made easy via firewire. Last yet most important is the large CCD in this camera. Even though there is only one, it is larger than most (1/4”). Just because I happened to explain the Optura 10 thoroughly doesn’t mean it’s the only good option for a beginner. I’d actually prefer the Sony TRV 17 over the Optura 10. It has pretty much the same features and looks very similar too but I just feel safer with Sony.

If you’ve already had a camera or two and you think you need to get a little more serious with your filming, you will find the need for a 3ccd camera. The best possible (and efficient money wise) solutions here are the Panasonic GS 65, 120, 150, and 250 as well as the Sony TRV900 and TRV950.

The Panasonic GS 65, 120 and 150 are all considered low-end 3ccd cameras because their CCD’s are only 1/6” each. The gs250 also has 1/6” CCD’s however what makes this camera better is that it has a manual focus ring. The ring is turned until the desired focus is achieved. However on the other GS series cameras mentioned here, those have left and right buttons that you must press (either left or right, not both at a time) to get the camera focused. This should not be a huge problem however the focus ring will help you learn to focus for when you get an even higher end camera. These cameras will run from anywhere between $250 and $500. If you are able to find one around $250 you should definitely choose that over any single CCD camera.

The Sony TRV900 and TRV950 are higher end 3CCD cameras. The TRV900 is considered to produce a picture very similar to the Sony VX1000 because it has the exact same style of CCD’s as the VX1000 however the trv900 has quarter inch ccd’s as opposed to the Vx1000’s third inch ccd’s. The trv900 has 52mm threads however the lens itself is only 37mm. Most people with the trv900 (that use it for skateboarding) get an adapter ring to fit the Century Optics 37mm Baby Death on it because it is amazingly wide and looks great. The TRV950 however has a picture that is closer to resembling the Sony Vx2000. The TRV950’s filter threads are 37mm however so the Century Optics baby death fits right on without any necessary adapters.

If you wanna skip the bullshit with buying a low end 3ccd cameras, the first obvious choice is the Sony Vx1000 (also called the vx1, and vx1k for short). The vx1 was introduced in Japan in 1995 so it’s deffinetly got a few good years on it. It was one of the first MiniDv cameras and at that it was a very high end one so the MSRP was roughly $4,100. Yes that’s right, you can get a decent Toyota for that price. It’s been 11 years now and you can find this camera on eBay for roughly $1000. This is the obvious choice because for a few years now the vx1000 has been the standard for pro videos. This makes it easy to believe that like I said, this IS the obvious choice because it’s the cheapest and allegedly the best. I know what you’re thinking “but Amit, this cameras older than my pubic hair, how can it be good?”. Well thing is it’s pretty much personal preference but most people prefer the “warm” colors of the vx1000 (trv900 is also very similar to the vx1000 in colors like I mentioned before). Meanwhile, the vx2000 and the vx2100 produce “colder” colors. If you know how to use a camera correctly, you can get the same colors you see on a vx1000, on a vx2000/2100. It’s just a little bit harder.

In addition to the low price and being the standard in skating, the vx1000 is also popular for it’s audio. It’s said to have the best audio out of the VX family. Having mentioned all the positives, I suppose it’s time for the negatives. Vx1’s are notorious for sucking in low light situations. This however can easily be fixed with the Bescor on camera light. Another thing is that since the vx1 is so old it’s “heads” (object in the tape compartment that moves the tape) are very fragile. This means that you shouldn’t playback footage on your vx1 that includes using it to upload footage to your computer. You need to buy a capture camera for that. (Capture camera-A cheap somehow broken damaged that can still be used to playback footage therefore using it to upload footage to your computer) Something else is that the Vx1 doesn’t have an LCD screen. Personally, I have yet to use the LCD screen while actually filming with my vx2000 and I think the viewfinder is the best way to go. Lack of an LCD screen on the vx1000 shouldn’t keep you from buying it so it’s more of a neutral thing than a negative.

Continuing along with the cheapest high end 3ccd camera ( kind of an oxymoron)… Next up is the Canon GL1. This camera sucks. Not much more to say except why it sucks. First, it costs a little more than the Sony Vx1000 and it only has ¼’’ CCD’s as opposed to the Vx1k’s 1/3” CCD’s. This means the colors won’t be as good and it’s true. The biggest problem with this camera is the sound. For a camera with an external microphone, the quality truly sucks and Canon could have done much better. Some things that are good about this camera is that there are zoom controls as well as a record button on top of the handle so it’s a little bit more convenient for filming lines in my opinion. Also it has an LCD screen, something that as I said, the vx1000 doesn’t have. Also, this camera is tiny. It’s not as tiny as the usual crap you see at best buy but for a camera that looks like it’d be huge in pictures. It’s awfully small. I think it’s only about 9-10 inches in length.

Next up, (cost wise) is the Sony Vx2000. Currently this is what I have and I’d have to say that I love this camera. Some good things are that it’s resolution is amazing and it produces some very vivid colors. Compared to the vx1000 the vx2000 is different in that it has an LCD screen but more importantly, filmers/skaters claim that the Vx2000 produces “colder” colors than the vx1000. Also the sound isn’t as “crisp” as the vx1000’s. The thing that made me fall in love with this camera is the low light capabilities. When I first heard the vx2000 was amazing at low light I figured that meant it would capture as much light as my own eyes saw but in reality it gets even more light into the CCD than your retinas do (at least mine, and not in all situations of course). The vx2000’s low light lux rating is of 2. The lower the better.

The Sony Vx2100 is very similar to the vx2000 footage wise. One thing different is that its slightly better in low light which is insane. Vx2100 is fitted with a different lens hood, viewfinder magnifier and handle than the vx2000. Also it’s a darker color. These minor differences are the reason they didn’t call it a vx3000. Just like the Canon GL1 (and 2) the Sony Vx2100 has zoom controls and a record button on the handle. The CCD is however the same size as the Vx2000 however it is just more sensitive (thus the better low light performance).

Now you’re probably wondering, “Well how do I film skateboarding without a fisheye, I don’t need my footy looking like Jook’s”. First let me explain what a fisheye is if you haven’t read the filming dictionary (ya’ damn noob). A fisheye is essentially a very curved piece of glass inside a metal/aluminum housing that screws onto the front of your camera. This curvature in the glass makes it give you a wide angle of view. However a normal wide angle is rated as low as .5x. This means your view will be increased by 50% (notice that it’s a decimal, not 5x). A fisheye for skateboarding is usually between .3x and .43x. Meaning this it is very wide and in a small amount of space you can get a lot of the image. Keep in mind any fisheye no matter how expensive, will put a negative effect on your cameras video quality (but of course it’ll be a lower amount quality loss if you spend $700 on the lens). Also when filming with a fisheye you have to remember to turn off your cameras steady shot feature. In Panasonic cameras it’s often called “EIS or OIS”.

Well then now, your ready to get a fisheye. Which one do you need? What size? What magnification? Well let me start to knock out those questions. If you have a low end camera (which I’m sure you do because if you need help buying a fisheye and you own a high end 3ccd, don’t bother asking) then you’ll be getting a screw on type fisheye (read about the other types in the filming dictionary). To figure out the size of your cameras filter threads (measured in mm) look around your lens for a circle with a line through it, the number after that is your filter thread size. If for some reason your camera does not have that then something you can do is go into google.com and search for “YOUR CAMERA MODEL filter thread”. Obviously you replace “YOUR CAMERA MODEL” with the actual model of your camera and you should get some results. The biggest mistake people make when they are trying to buy there first fisheye is that they actually search for a “fisheye”. Instead, if you want to use a search engine use your cameras filter thread size and a magnification of a wide angle lens such as .42x or .43x. The popular brand of fisheye to get with that magnification is the Kenko but there all pretty much the same aside from appearance and price tag (Kenko costs more). There is also the Raynox qc-303. This lens is wider because it’s a .3x (by the way not all companies rate there lens’s the same way). The quality sucks a little bit more on this lens but it’s a fair amount wider than the .42x’s. Something I don’t like is that this lens is a snap on so it can fall of really easily. But of course, if you really have the money to spend, you’ll be looking for the Century Optics .3x 37mm (37mm is the key part). This lens is often called the “Baby Death” because it’s smaller than the full sized death and made for smaller cameras. It costs $300 but this lens is the widest of all lens’s for smaller cameras and it also reduces the footage quality the least amount.

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