video camcorder or digital camera - TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Boards!

travelguy · 03-01-2005, 03:11 PM

I think having camcorder videos of your trip is much better than pictures. Why do people mostly take digital cameras?

I am hitting the running of the bulls this summer and I plan on taking a camcorder. I have not bought it yet.

are there any important specific reasons people dont take camcorder? Maybe i am missing something here. I dont want to make a big mistake.

**omisan** · 03-01-2005, 03:29 PM

Camcorders tend to be larger and bulkier than digital cameras, which can be slipped into your pocket.

It's a lot easier to send out tons of pictures of your trip than gigabytes of digitized video. Easier to edit, too!

Battery life on camcorders is far shorter than what you'd get out of a digicam.

Camcorders will go through more removable media (ie. tapes) than digital cameras, and you'll have to lug 'em around, instead of easily transfering them to CD ROM as you can usually do w/ flash memory contents.

Most new digicams have a good Video mode where you can record 640x480+ quality video.. So for the action & the motion, you can capture it on your digital camera, then come home and edit the footage..

**ChasinJason1313** · 03-01-2005, 11:21 PM

coupla reasons for the digi cam:

1) Most of the stuff yer taking pics of is not moving. with still pictures you give the people that're looking at yer pictures the option of when to stop looking. there are few things as annoying in this life as watching a home video where someone has taped something too long...and vice versa.

2) all the reasons Omi said

3) with digi cams it's super easy to review the pic you just took and retake it if you want.

4) because I said so

**Canadian Dude** · 03-01-2005, 11:30 PM

For me, it was 3 things,

Cost...camcorders are just bloody expencive, if something happens then ur out a lot of dough

Size...Camcorders become a pain in the ass to carry around after a while, and when you do not have it with you, you have to worry about someone else helping them selves to it.

Battery Life...You can not just go to a corner store and buy a new camcorde battery, you need a place to charge up, and if it dies when your filming, so much for that.

I was so happy to have my digicam on my last few trips.

**zylah** · 03-01-2005, 11:40 PM

plus most digicams now let u take some motion picture, u now have the best of both worlds.

**d_fresh** · 03-02-2005, 05:36 AM

we brought both with us to europe. usually take both wherever. our videocam is crazy small...and wasn't that expensive. cheaper than my digital camera.

**Ozpacka** · 03-04-2005, 12:30 AM

Yeah, a lot of digital vidocams are cheaper than good digital cameras these days, but i still think the digital camera is the way to go.

You can still take good quality footage of stuff that you need too. You wont spend your entire trip walking behind a video camera. You can take plenty of nice stills and edit them on your puter, post them on the web, etc...

My vote: Digital Camera...

Leeroy

scotters · 03-11-2005, 12:06 AM

Well I guess this answers a question I was going to post: I"m going with a still camera no matter what but I was debating film vs. digital. Newer digitals can be as good as film but I"m maybe a little worried what could happen to my "electronic" pictures instead of having an old fashioned trusty roll of film. Seems that most people in this thread like digis though.... Thoughts? B)

**omisan** · 03-11-2005, 01:28 AM

I've had far fewer problems with my digital cams than I ever did w/ film cameras. Between film going bad, poor development, and just having the wrong damn settings on the camera, I've taken far better photos and overall had many more successes with digi... I won't argue that the quality of film cameras isn't better - in the right hands, an SLR and good film blows anything else out of the water. But until I have the budget for a kick-ass film SLR and some photography classes, I've found that digital works best for me - and besides, you can back up your memory cards, unlike film!!

These are just tiny thumbnails, but I think they represent a good range of what sorts of pictures you can take w/ a lowly digital camera:

http://tavallai.com/photography.html

**space virgin** · 03-11-2005, 09:49 AM

I wholeheartedly agree with Omisan about digital cameras. With film, I've been lucky to get 50% decent shots per roll.

With digital, the quality of the images I've taken has gone way up, not to mention you can delete any bad ones. And your "film" is re-usable, lol. I do believe that at the higher end of the spectrum, film cameras will beat digital, but honestly, I think you'd have to spend a lot of money to get to that point.