Comments

Jay Gladwell wrote on 8/5/2009, 7:46 AM

What kind of files does it create?

EDIT:
Found it at Sony -- "Format: SD (MPEG2)"

If it were up to me (and it isn't), I would go another route.

Is this part of a video/film production program?


rs170a wrote on 8/5/2009, 9:41 AM
Jay, I detest the camera too but ithe decision isn't up to me either :-(
I'm happy that the folks in the AV office even approached me as they usually buy whatever they want and then let me deal with the students who have to edit the footage they shot.
They're trying to get away from tape-based camcorders so the student no longer has to try and find a tape somewhere.
These are for general student use only as the Journalism program has four PD-170s at their disposal (someone was using their head for a change!).
I'm just looking for an inexpensive camcorder that, if need be, I can easily dump footage from it into Vegas without any hassles.
I think I'll start a new thread with a different heading.

Mike
Bob Denny wrote on 8/6/2009, 3:30 PM
>They're trying to get away from tape-based camcorders so the student
> no longer has to try and find a tape somewhere.

Oh, those poor students. This seems like a totally bogus reason. I'll bet THEY don't want to have buy tapes.
rs170a wrote on 8/6/2009, 4:09 PM
Bob, tapes were never ever supplied to anyone, faculty included.
We're talking $3 or $4 for a 1 hr. miniDV tape, less than a cappuccino at Starbuck's and yet the students constantly whined about having to buy one (a tape, that is).
I've gotten very tired of college students pleading poverty and expecting to be handed them to them yet they're carrying around $1000 (or more) laptops and yakking on their iPhones :-(

Mike
ushere wrote on 8/6/2009, 4:43 PM
hi mike,

just wait till you're confronted by an angry student complaining all his work has been 'erased' by another student who just 'used' the camera for one shot.

happened with a course i was running - and on top of that, we had bit's and pieces of work scattered over three cameras (sr10's). and to cap it off, one laptop went down taking one students entire footage with it - no tape of course and the camera files long gone....

tapeless is all well and good, under the right circumstances.....

leslie
rs170a wrote on 8/6/2009, 5:09 PM
leslie, you're 100% correct and I know that a scenario like you described is going to bite someone in the a** sooner or later, especially since these are hard drive camcorders and so many users think the footage will be there forever.

No worse though than one group last fall where one member went away for the weekend - with a tape full of project footage that got erased as he recorded his weekend partying over top of it.
My response? Too bad, so sad.

I keep telling them that there are labels and a record tab and to make sure both get used.
As you know though, talking to most students is like talking to a brick wall :-(

Mike