buying a Digital Video Camera. any advice?

[mugget]

hi,

i hope this is the right place to post, i figured there might be some people here that could help me out with this...

i'm looking for a Digital Video Camera and i just need some advice from people in the know. i'm going to be studying Animation & Special FX this semester so i need a camera that will give me really good picture quality and colour accuracy, without making me bankrupt.

i've had a look at some of the 3 CCD cameras, and they seem to be really good, but that's way too far out of the price range i'm looking at.

also, the more manual features the better, like manual focus of course, and manual exposure if possible in the price range i'm looking at, which is probalby up to AU$3000, but under that is better. BTW, can you get manual exposure as a analogue control on the camera, or do you have to change it from the menu on the camera?

also, could someone explain MiniDV and MicroMV? which one has the better quicture quality? or are they both the same? i read somewhere that MicroMV cameras record the footage as MPEG2? is that true, or can you get DV quality footage out of a MircoMV camera?

i'm leaning towards Sony at the moment as well, they've been recommended to me as having good picture quality. but if anyone can suggest other models that'd be great as well.

oh, and does a camer with a single 2 MegaPixel CCD have a noticable picture quality difference over a single 1 MegaPixel CCD? i'm guess it would have twice as good picture quality?

well, thanks for taking the time to read. if anyone could post their recommended cameras, and different models/brands that would help me out alot.

thanks.

[megamachine]

Lots to answer here, so let me weigh in about SONY MicroMV and let some one else address the other parts. MicroMV utilizes in camera MPEG-2 compression at 12Mbps and is exported from the camera as an MMV file in MPEG-2 transport stream. The software that comes with camera, Movie Shaker, can convert this to MPEG-2 program stream, which is more acceptable to MPEG editing programs, or to a limited number of other formats, including AVI-DV. Not as high quality as straight DV, but the trade off is in camera size, which is quite compact and fits in a jacket pocket easily, if that's what you are after. I have been happy with MMV so far, but like other users am still waiting for more software suites to accept the format. I believe Ulead Video Studio 7 and above has some limited compatibility. For more about MMV, you can check this page: http://www.manifest-tech.com/media_pc/micromv.htm

[mugget]

thanks megamachine, that's answered my questions about MicroMV. also someone on another forums mentioned that MicroMV isnt' Mac compatible which is a very big problem for me.

i've been doing a bit of research and i'm leaning towards the Sony DCRPC330 is the 3 MegaPixel CCD a great improvment in quality over a 1 MigaPixel CCD, like 3 times the quality?

thanks, i know there's lots of questions to answer, but that's really helping me out.