What sort of video do I need?

[ChrisR]

I've got a Lumix compact which only does VGA 30fps. (640 x 480)
I need something which is sharper, for short videos of old catalogues and documents. Stable camera and book, just some page-turning. Lighting wouldn't be great, just typical indoor lighting. Not sure now many lux that is but I believe it's 50+.

I imagine that compression would make a difference too.
Am I going to get up to a "pretty decent" level with a cheap(ish) compact, or do I need a camcorder?

What should I be looking for?

CHeers

 

[plugwash]

What is your aim here? Why are you trying to video catalogues and documents?! Do you need to capture the actual content of the pages? does it really need to be video?

If your aim is to actually capture the content of the pages you will be much better off with either a scanner or a good stills camera (read: a DSLR) than messing arround with video.

 

[ChrisR]

Want to page back and forth, go between documents etc pointing things out.
It has to be video. Snaps, I can manage

 

[timtheenchanter]

you may find a better result if you improve the lighting, digital cameras that do video are the worst for low lighting conditions, the quality drops to compensate, you might find its ok once brightened up.

what do you want to do with it after recording?

the flip cameras are pretty good when it comes to video, the HD verison even more so, the audio however is fine if its just you with low ambient noise, not great is the ambient noise increases or mulitle people around.

 

[ChrisR]

The flip does look quite good. There are some youtube vids.
Output would be viewed on a computer sctreen and I may not be able to do anythig about lighting.

 

[ChrisR]

WHat are the standards, What I have is 640 x 480, I've heard of 720 then there's HD.
Can anyone tell me the numbers and an idea of whether the difference is just noticeable or massive?

 

[timtheenchanter]

the resolution is the dimensions in pixels.

good artical here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_resolution

basically your vid is 640x480 pixels, if you want it bigger, it just increses the number of pixels used for a bit of vid, ie 1 pixel becomes 4, therefore quite blocky.

1280x720 is the lower end of HD, 1520x1080 is full HD.

the skill is to pick an appropriate size.

there is also more to it than plain size, bitrate has alot to do with it, have a google and read up on it, its beyond my capabilities to explain...

how would it get to computer screen? disk, web?? if web or network, it may limit your options if it needs to load quickly.

 

[ChrisR]

Thanks again
It's for web download. Wifey wants to do some stuff on family history.
I can't see it being "streamed" which I think means watchable by several people at once, so they'd have to download.
Seems like it's of the order of 1MB per minute - that make sense?
XGA 1024 x 768 would be about right I think.
Dialup users would have to have a different option!

It's usually better in still photo stuff to use a better image than you need after post-processing, don't know if that would apply..

So back at the original question of what camera to use, it's sorta looking like anything which does HD would be good enough, considerations like lighting aside.
Presumably there are (cheap??) video processing softwares which can resample/reformat things...?

 

[timtheenchanter]

TBH for most basic stuff, I use windows movie maker, there is usually a need to add titles etc, although versions before win 7 (possible vista) dont do HD formats.

I also use realplayer and winFF for conversions of rates.

Also have a look at serifs video package and sony vegas, I have the pro version, not sure on pricing of the lower versions, we have serif at work, and its very user friendly.

1Mb/min sounds about right. depending on your web skills dont discount streaming, even in hd, there are some embed players that give a HD/SD option and they do the hard bit!! just make sure its one that your have to click play on, auto play video on websites irritates, and makes it harder for those on slow connections/dial up

apprently 10% of users are on dial up, so a RAR download? reccomending they use a download manager, or a option to order a copy on DVD with a donation to costs though paypal??

Yes its better to have a better video to downscale later, especially in video software, obviously the less scaling has to be done, the quicker the final render will be.