cheap alternatives for church video
 

Anyone know where I can find one? Years ago someone pointed out a Sony system on ebay but now I can't find any.

Im looking for at least 3 cams...two side mounted and one in the middle with pan and tilt with auto track as well as a joy stick, that that is not necessarily a must.

I am looking to be able to burn to DVD as well as put on the web

Re: cheap alternatives for church video
 

what all do you need? cameras? cables? mixer? switcher/scaler?

Re: cheap alternatives for church video
 

I am looking for at least three cams with the ability to auto track and a joy stick. Clearly I need the ability to switch between cams and still record. I don't need cables, we can get that stuff

Re: cheap alternatives for church video
 

Re: cheap alternatives for church video
 

i'll send you some makes/models of cams. they do make kits that you can put on regular cameras...that give you the remote control ability.

as for switchers....I use a Sony AnyCast...it is the bomb.

Re: cheap alternatives for church video
 

what do you mean regular cam? We'd have to buy the cam too in that case. My digi cam does not have any ability to feed signals. It just records to the internal HD.

Maybe something like this

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...CD_Remote.html

it's not a huge church building

Re: cheap alternatives for church video
 

Prax,

As an old church video director and producer I HATE those remote control cameras. Even if you get ones with a decent pic the movement is not very subtle. It looks really bad unless you make sure you don't cut to a camera until you have already started your pan or tilt.

You would be much better off with good ole human beans operating cameras on a tripod but I understand that sometimes that is not possible and even then that only works if you have good fluid head tripods that pan and tilt smoothly and the price of them usually freaks out churches.

For my Wedding / Event Videography business my Sacthlter tripod and head cost $1600 and that at the bottom end of decent tripods. I also have a $600 Bogen / Manfrotto 503HDV head on a 475B tripod that is good and the absolute lowest end I would go for professional video work.

For a really good pic you need a camera with 3 CCD's or 3 CMOS chips. However there are some good consumer cameras from Canon and Sony that are single chip and do well enough for standard definition church videos.

The remote cameras are an entirely different story. Be careful because many of them are for security purposes or other monitoring situations and are not meant to have the quality you need for videos.

As far as switching,etc goes Newtek has a portable all in one solution called "Tricaster" you might check out. If that does not fit your budget as long as you are not going high def you can find some decent switchers that will handle 3 or 4 cameras for under two grand and possibly around $500.

Re: cheap alternatives for church video
 

what about those security camaras? Can they do the job? They sell them at Fry's and they are not near as expensive as the Sony cams

Re: cheap alternatives for church video
 

what about for internet video? Don't need high quality for that.

Re: cheap alternatives for church video
 

Our church just decided to get one of the Newtek Tricaster systems. Very cool.

Prax - even for internet delivery, you want decent source video from a cam with a good lens. Those security cams are going to be pretty subpar - it's just not what their made for IMO.

Re: cheap alternatives for church video
 

what do you think would be a good solution for the Internet?

Re: cheap alternatives for church video
 

I'll ask some A/V people I know for recommendations. It's been a while since I've been in that loop.