Trying to decide what to buy- I'd like a video camera for general purposes,
but mostly to record what goes on in my profession which is forestry- the
management of forests- in the central New England area- I've been a
"professional forester" for a third of a century- and I'd like to record
myself and other foresters at work in the woods- showing us studying forests
to prepare mgt. plans, preparing timber harvests, recording loggers at work-
along with interviewing foresters and environmentalist- the interviews
preferably in the woods. And, I can also show different types of forests-
perhaps getting into educational stuff..... Indirectly all of this could be
useful for my forestry consulting business but I also like to have an impact
on the politics of forestry too.

I'd then like to upload such videos to the net- possibly U-Tube or wherever
I could upload them at the lowest price and have access to them by links
from my personal web space.

So, I need a video camera that can record well in the forests. Though I'm
tempted by newer camcorders that record high def- I doubt that would be wise
for a first camera and it would certainly be overkill to prepare videos for
the net.

I suppose I'd take many hours of video for any hour  actually uploaded.
Because of this I think I'll go with a camera with a hard drive. I've
learned from messages in this newsgroup and in magazines about the tradeoffs
between recording to video tape, DVD and hard drives- that video tape
records to a higher quality format which is better for editing- but in a
recent magazine, some lab compared these 3 methods and found little
difference in final quality. Also, that article pointed out that recording
in environments with dust or other possible contaminants will be less of a
problem with sealed systems such as a hard drive.

I'll probably do much of the filming with a very nice tripod that I bought a
decade ago when I got a Nikon F100 film camera. It was designed as an
outdoor tripod.

Not sure about the lighting problems in a forest- but my experience with the
35 mm camera was to avoid days with bright sunlight which give too much
contrast. On bright but cloudy days there seems to be plenty of light in the
woods- but some forests can get dark even on such days if the forest is
mostly hemlock or spruce or large pines- I suppose I could just avoid such
forests- but it would be nice to sample those also.

I have a new high end computer for editing- a Dell with duel core CPU, 2
gigs of RAM, large hard drive and a gorgeous 24" flatscreen monitor. I have
no idea about editing software for a dedicated amateur, but I'll get to that
later. My PC came with Vista Ultimate and I know there is some basic movie
software in the OS. The PC came with a card for firewire (I think that's
what it's called but not sure if cameras can use it)- of course it also came
with plenty of USB ports.

Though I'm always tempted to look for high end products- perhaps for my
needs I can get by without too much expense.

In conclusion, I don't need bells and whistles- but I do prefer a solidly
built camera- which can record well in the lighting conditions of a forest-
and record lots of hours which I can then edit.

I'm quite willing to spend up to $1,500 but if I can get by with half that
much to serve my limited needs that's nice too.

Oh, I have subscribed to Videomaker though most of the articles are over my
head- I'll keep them and keep them reading them as I build my skills.

Suggestions welcome- as I look at cameras- especially at Best Buy- I find it
difficult to make a decision. I hate buying the wrong item.

Joe

You left no usable email address, so I post this here. At
http://www.donferrario.com/ruether/fs-camcorders.htm
I list two LN camcorders FS, and either should work well
for what you want to do (these both provide higher resolution
than low-end HD and disk camcorders, and the picture
contrast is more normal than many small-CCD recent
cameras - and the low light range is greater), the TRV900
and TRV30, both under $1500 with some useful accessories
added. BTW, dust appears not to be a great problem with
tape (Sony Mini-DV/DVCam camcorders are used in Iraq
by CNN, by MTV for Jackass, etc.). On the same web page
are reviews and comparisons of these and other camcorders.
--David Ruether
   d_ruet***@hotmail.com

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