Camcorder for pictures ?????

EddieWalker · May 3, 2006

Steph is my girlfriend and she's developed a pasion for wildlife. Especially birds!!!

We have compact digital cameras with 4X optical zoom. No good for taking pics of wildlife or birds. A good digital camera like a Cannon D Rebal without a lense is around $500. Then theres the lense and that could go over grand real easy.

I've seen the new digital camcorders that have 30x and even up to 50x optical zooms on them. That woudl be perfect for her, and even allot cheaper.

Her goal is not for profesional quality pics, but to be able to recognize what it is and share the pics through emails to friends. So resolution isn't a priority, but something decent will work great.

My questions are;

1. What type of quality or resolution can we expect from a camcorder?

2. Has anybody done this?

3. Did it work, or am I way off here???

4. Do you need special hardware or software to capture pictures from a digital camcorder?

5. What resolution can be captured on a camcorder? 1.4 to 3.2, more or less????

6. What are the better camcorders?

7. What format would work best for this??

8. Where is the best place to buy one if this isn't a really bad idea??? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Thank you,
Eddie

MikePA · May 3, 2006

Taking stills with a camcorder is a bad idea for the tasks you listed. You can get a 12x optical zoom camera, like a Canon Powershot S2 IS, for about $300 - $320. No additional lenses needed, although Canon makes a 2x teleconverter for this camera. The Canon uses 4 AA batteries (rechargable recommended) and has Image Stabilization. You wont find a digital camera with a greater optical zoom.

Gatorboy · May 3, 2006

The quality of a single frame image from a camcorder is poor at best. Use the proper tool for the job -- a camera.

orangebluegreen · May 3, 2006

I’ve been taking pics of dogs off Hi-8 video for over 10 years. First started with Snappy capture, then several years ago moved to ATI Allinwonder video card. Very outdated way of doing things but it allowed me to go frame by frame and get just the shot I was looking for. The positive side is I often get comments the pictures on my web site are so much nicer than others.....it’s mainly painstaking time spent laboring over “just the right shot”. Its amazing one frame might have a tongue hanging out or light reflecting off an eye, I get exactly what I want by going frame by frame. The down side is with my Hi-8 being an “interlaced” setup I only capture half the available resolution. I make my pics 300X400 and only “internet quality”. There is no way my system will do very high quality.

The digital cams are a step up....higher resolution and can stop a frame in full resolution on most cams and usually require no special software other than what comes with it. NONE of them will be as good a quality as a good dedicated camera vs. camcorder. The only reason I still use a camcorder is wanting to get just the right frame and I’ve waited for SLR digitals to get better and lower priced (they didn’t even have them when I started). The little 3X zoom digital cams are USELESS for serious animal photography. I have not kept up with camcorders over the past few years but I have recently read mention of a higher resolution digital camcorder format on the horizon. Personally I would much rather use a camcorder....I am choosing from literally thousands of shots rather than just a few. I WISH camcorders would get to the quality of still cameras.

The longer the optical zoom for animals the better. Camcorder zoom and still digital cam zoom are not directly the same....a 10X digital cam zoom is more than a 10X camcorder zoom...be aware of the difference. If you are too close to an animal they will not act natural, at a distance they will forget you are there and pose more naturally. The old single shot cameras without multiple shot capability is also useless....if trying to capture a dog looking at you in an inquisitive pose, the noise from the first shot gets it’s attention but without multiple frames you miss the important pose just after the first attention getting noise....obviously not a factor if digital is quiet.

Bottom line is intended use. A computer monitor is not going to show all the available quality of the best digital cams so some of it is wasted. The best quality cams come into importance when you are making prints, the higher the quality the better. Prints from a camcorder will look very poor compared to a good cam, but for simple e-mail or web sites, a digital camcorder may be just as good. The biggest problem I see with camcorders is they do not have the light sensitivity or speed abilities of the new digital cameras and cannot do clear large sized pictures even for web sites, you’ll be stuck with smaller sized pics if you want it clear. I’ll join the ranks of a dedicated camera one of these days when it becomes critical for me, OR I’ll wait and see if they come up with better camcorders....would be there now if tractors weren’t so expensive. IMO the quality of all of them is way behind where they should be, especially camcorders. It appears to me they only advance the quality once they get the market saturated with mediocrity.

EddieWalker · May 3, 2006

orangebluegreen,

WOW, thanks for all that information.

We're not interested in high quality prints, but to be able to reckognize the bird and have a record that it's here. Email and printer quality is pretty poor at best, so there's no real advantage to anything with a high pixal rate anyway.

You did lose me on the comparason of digital camera zoom and camcorder zoom. Is there a way to compare the two?

I've looked at the 12x zoom on the cannon camera and would like to have more if I can. Thus the reason for thinking about camcorders.

Birds don't sit still very long either, so getting on them with a camcorder would be allot easier, than maybe she can get them doing different things under film that she can select frame by fram and save to a file.

Thank you,
Eddie

Tractors4u · May 3, 2006

I have a Rebel digital 6 mega pixel, a Nikon Coolpix 775, 2.1 mega pixel and my old Fuji that I believe is a 1 mega pixel. I recently bought a JVC digital video camera to take to Iraq. It's still camera is rated at 5 mega pixel and the pictures are lower quality than the little 6 year old Fuji camera. Like Gatorboy said, get a good digital camera. Go for the most optical zoom over digital zoom and the most mega pixel your budget will allow.

BillG_in_TX · May 3, 2006

Eddie,

I second MikePA's suggestion that you check out the Canon S2. It has image stabilization, excellent resolution and a great movie mode that zooms all the way through 48x (12x optical, 4x digital) zoom. It also allows you to snap a hi-res picture while you're in the movie mode. By the way, Canon has announced the S3, but it's not available yet.

If the built-in zoom isn't enough for Steph, she can add on a lens which will effectively make the zoom 18x optical (with the Canon lens) or greater. Here's a good site for add-on adapters with comparison shots - LensMate Online.

For a real-world example of using a Canon S1 (10x predecessor of S2) with a 1.6x add-on lens, see this series of pictures that I took down near Llano. The first is with no zoom, the next 3 are 16x (10x optical plus 1.6x add-on), and the last 2 are with the 3.2x digital zoom added in (51x total).

Without going to a dslr, where you can add on big zooms, I think that the S2 is about the best value out there. I suggest that you pick one up at Best Buy, and if it doesn't work for you, return it and keep looking.

EddieWalker · May 3, 2006

Bill,

WOW, that's exactly what she wants to do!!!!

Those are some amazing pics and you really showed what the camera can do.

Thank you,
Eddie

TheKid · May 3, 2006

I can answer some of your questions. I have a JVC model GR-DLV 520U

1. What type of quality or resolution can we expect from a camcorder?
Still shots can be taken at 640X480 or 1024X768
2. Has anybody done this?
Yes
3. Did it work, or am I way off here???
It works for low res pics for posting on the web or for e-mailing.
4. Do you need special hardware or software to capture pictures from a digital camcorder?
Drivers came with the camcorder. Still pics are downloaded through the USB port and video through a firewire port.

It has a 10X optical zoom and can be setup to use either 40X or 700X digital zoom.

It works for me right now, but I'm going to get a good digital camera that I can use my old SLR lenses on.

Here's a picture that was taken from about 25 ft. away through a window during a snow storm.

MikePA · May 3, 2006

I've always considered digital zoom, whether on a camcorder or a digital camera, a worthless feature since you can do the same thing in software on a computer.