Digital camcorder benefits over the point and shoot - Comparison of different camera types

Walking Nature World

Trail Blazer
You can watch the full video here:



In this video we want to share with you why don't we film on a point and shoot camera and prefer to film on digital camcorder and action camera instead. We feel like it may be interesting for many people as it offers a new point of view on filming in general. As we found that the most popular option that people tend to stick with are point and shoot cameras nowadays. So if you are interested in the topic stay tuned as we are about to share our arguments and test in the field in order to compare the different types of cameras.



What is your preferred camera type and why?
 

Davy

Thru Hiker
We're going to try Mrs Davy's fancy new iPhone and a new Gopro Hero 8 for our upcoming trip. It will be instead of our Panasonic Lumix GX8 and Gopro Hero 3+.

Improvements in image quality (phone and Hero 8 both shoot 4k) and image stabilisation should be good for video.

Hopefully I won't miss a view finder, shooting RAW photos and using a 'proper' tripod. I know I won't miss the weight, bulk and extra batteries...
 

Davy

Thru Hiker
Think so a quick Google suggests it requires third party apps, Mrs Davy is allegedly across photography this trip... Not sure the lens and sensor will make it worth it over the benefits of the very good in-built image processing.

Need to practice.
 

WilliamC

Thru Hiker
Not sure the lens and sensor will make it worth it over the benefits of the very good in-built image processing.

Need to practice.
My experience (with higher end Android phones) is that the out of the phone Jpegs look fine of the phone screen but when viewed on a large computer screen, you can do much better by tweaking the RAW files. Whether or not it's worth the time and effort to you is another question.
 

Odd Man

Thru Hiker
Think so a quick Google suggests it requires third party apps, Mrs Davy is allegedly across photography this trip... Not sure the lens and sensor will make it worth it over the benefits of the very good in-built image processing.

Need to practice.

Buy the Camera+ app to have more control over the settings, more DSLR type options.
 

Davy

Thru Hiker
My experience (with higher end Android phones) is that the out of the phone Jpegs look fine of the phone screen but when viewed on a large computer screen, you can do much better by tweaking the RAW files. Whether or not it's worth the time and effort to you is another question.

That was certainly the case with her previous iPhone 5 and 6s.

This thread has prompted some discussion. Mrs Davy has a great eye for a picture, she's a bit less interested in the necessary photo geekery which comes with RAW and post processing. Work in progress.
 

Teepee

Thru Hiker
My experience (with higher end Android phones) is that the out of the phone Jpegs look fine of the phone screen but when viewed on a large computer screen, you can do much better by tweaking the RAW files. Whether or not it's worth the time and effort to you is another question.

The newer iphones use HEIF, it's compressed but holds a lot more info than JPEG and I think it'll do 16 bit colour instead of jpegs measly 8 bit. It seems a lot better, but I don't speak from experience.
(edit...just seen Samsung have started supporting HEIF on the S10 and above. Time to have a play with it)
Yes, RAW for the win if you want to do much to the image. RAW is even becoming reasonably accessible for video.
 
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Walking Nature World

Trail Blazer
We're going to try Mrs Davy's fancy new iPhone and a new Gopro Hero 8 for our upcoming trip. It will be instead of our Panasonic Lumix GX8 and Gopro Hero 3+.

Improvements in image quality (phone and Hero 8 both shoot 4k) and image stabilisation should be good for video.

Hopefully I won't miss a view finder, shooting RAW photos and using a 'proper' tripod. I know I won't miss the weight, bulk and extra batteries...


Hope you will enjoy using them, would be interesting to hear your opinion about it after. It is hard to argue about the quality of cell phone cameras nowadays. For us using a big camera it may be more about the convenience and the vibe it gives us when we start filming, like more serious attitude and enjoyment from using it. So it is totally a personal preference. But if it is about being able to carry it everywhere with you it's hard to beat. We have several special moments captured only because we carried a mobile phone with us.
 

DuneElliot

Section Hiker
I started with my camcorder for vlogging trips but the quality wasn't as great, and the angle was too close. I want something that does both decent photos and video so I stuck with my Sony HX90. I may upgrade in the future when I have more than 13 subscribers, but for now it works great
 

Daymoth

Section Hiker
I use a point and shoot, despite the black magic mobile phone cameras nowadays have, i preffer the camera.

I can wear them with a strap instead of zipping and unzipping pockets. The optical zoom and bigger sensor give me a much bigger range. they dont get fiddly when it rains on the touch screen. And i can keep my nice photos in a separate SD card than my day to day rubbish photos.

I just use my phone for navigation.
 

cathyjc

Thru Hiker
I use a point and shoot, despite the black magic mobile phone cameras nowadays have, i preffer the camera.

I can wear them with a strap instead of zipping and unzipping pockets. The optical zoom and bigger sensor give me a much bigger range. they dont get fiddly when it rains on the touch screen. And i can keep my nice photos in a separate SD card than my day to day rubbish photos.

I just use my phone for navigation.

Ditto. :thumbsup:
 

Diddi

Thru Hiker
We're going to try Mrs Davy's fancy new iPhone and a new Gopro Hero 8 for our upcoming trip. It will be instead of our Panasonic Lumix GX8 and Gopro Hero 3+.

Improvements in image quality (phone and Hero 8 both shoot 4k) and image stabilisation should be good for video.

Hopefully I won't miss a view finder, shooting RAW photos and using a 'proper' tripod. I know I won't miss the weight, bulk and extra batteries...
The hero8 black is a great bit of kit. Batteries onthe other hand :(....
Not sure how long you have had it but
A tip to conserve battery is to turn Quick capture off as its a killer (keep on if using a lot that day) but ot will drain overnight if left on..and also the connect to gopro app as thats constantly searching.
Quick capture will default to the last used capture mode.
Post processing 4k is a pc killer unless you have a decent one. Took my laptop 12 hours to convert 31 minutes of 4k 60fps to a video :eek:... Tiz why I'm building my own cheap pc just for gopro.
And free editing software I use Open shot video editor
 

Odd Man

Thru Hiker
The hero8 black is a great bit of kit. Batteries onthe other hand :(....
Not sure how long you have had it but
A tip to conserve battery is to turn Quick capture off as its a killer (keep on if using a lot that day) but ot will drain overnight if left on..and also the connect to gopro app as thats constantly searching.
Quick capture will default to the last used capture mode.
Post processing 4k is a pc killer unless you have a decent one. Took my laptop 12 hours to convert 31 minutes of 4k 60fps to a video :eek:... Tiz why I'm building my own cheap pc just for gopro.
And free editing software I use Open shot video editor

I have GoPro 7 Black and I tend to carry 3-4 batteries, with a small charger & power bank and rotate them and I get full days shooting doing this. I did a 3 day timelapse (shooting all the time) of our Millford Sound track with this strategy. The weight penalty is pretty small. Also turn off Wifi, GPS if you don't need them to get most out of the batteries. I shoot 1080p60fps which is a good compromise for the quality, memory card usage and also uses less battery as higher bitrates require more from the device.

IMG_7669.jpg
 

Diddi

Thru Hiker
I use
  1. Gopro hero 8 black for videos of days nights on the hill.
  2. Sony 30x optical zoom camera for mountain shots & zoom video.
  3. Samsung S20 for quick capture of pictures & 4k & 8k video.
 

Odd Man

Thru Hiker
I use
  1. Gopro hero 8 black for videos of days nights on the hill.
  2. Sony 30x optical zoom camera for mountain shots & zoom video.
  3. Samsung S20 for quick capture of pictures & 4k & 8k video.

I think you might need a third PC for that 8k video... :hilarious:
 

Diddi

Thru Hiker
I have GoPro 7 Black and I tend to carry 3-4 batteries, with a small charger & power bank and rotate them and I get full days shooting doing this. I did a 3 day timelapse (shooting all the time) of our Millford Sound track with this strategy. The weight penalty is pretty small. Also turn off Wifi, GPS if you don't need them to get most out of the batteries. I shoot 1080p60fps which is a good compromise for the quality, memory card usage and also uses less battery as higher bitrates require more from the device.

View attachment 25482
20200728_184355.jpg
Thos is usually how i power my timelapse shots :thumbsup:
 

Davy

Thru Hiker
I've got access to Adobe Premier Pro through a work account so can edit 4k using a proxy workflow on my mid spec 4 year old PC without too many problems. The Hero 8 is still in the post, allegedly turns up tomorrow - I've plenty of experience with the Hero 3+ and know what you mean about battery life, wifi is always off. I tend to shoot in bursts of 5 seconds as well which keeps file sizes manageable. I've yet to fill a 32GB memory card in a 2 week holiday (Mrs Davy's iPhone is 256GB). I come from an amateur SLR and DSLR background so abandoning conventional 35mm camera handling completely is a bit of a leap of faith.

The OP makes very high quality polished productions which I'm guessing they hope to earn some income from. I like messing about with cameras and post processing for fun, whilst I aim for decent quality images and compositions, often stuff goes wrong mainly due to laziness (shakey, out of focus footage, the odd bit of low res phone footage as a 'proper' camera wasn't to hand etc.) and still gets included in the edit as its part of the 'narrative'. We never talk to screen vlog style as all my movies are just family records set to a sound track to enjoy in our dotage.. We used to select music based on what we were listening to as a family at the time but with the quite correct clamp down on copyright, now increasingly music choice is governed by what is the least-worst free creative commons licensed music I can find that we don't all hate.

Mrs Davy shot some 4k footage on her phone at Swinley on Sunday, I'm going to tinker with it over the weekend.
 
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Davy

Thru Hiker
So quick edit of our afternoon in Swinley.


Couple of technical observations if anyone is interested:

  • I've not tinkered with the footage in post production so its exactly how it came out of Premiere Pro. I think its a bit too contrasty for my preference, Mrs Davy is going to try a 3rd party app to get a flatter look with a greater dynamic range.
  • Some of the shots are soft, which I think is when the image stabilisation is working hard; it also crops the image a fair bit. Not sure if we can control this or not without switching it off, which will be worse.
  • Mrs Davy has some cheap polarizing filters on the phone lens(es) which may also be having an effect.
  • Its condensation coming out of the exhaust ;)

Generally iPhone 11pro is perfectly good enough for our purposes, so conclusion is happy to leave the mirrorless Lumix behind. Just need to work on content, editing and post production skills... :)

GoPro Hero 8 is now with us, so will have a tinker with that this weekend and see how it goes.
 
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Ian Barton

Summit Camper
So quick edit of our afternoon in Swinley.

GoPro Hero 8 is now with us, so will have a tinker with that this weekend and see how it goes.

I have got a Hero 7, which I have had for about a year. It's worth spending some time watching YouTube so you can get the optimum settings for your use case. I always turn off wide view, or whatever it's called. I don't like the fisheye distortion and image stabilization works better because it can use frames from the edge. I have got three SmaTree batteries and a charger plus the original GoPro battery, which will easily last a two day trip. Stabilization is excellent. I often record videos on my bike with the GoPro attached to the handlebars. Despite the dreadful condition of our country lanes, I always get perfectly stabilized footage. I have also taken some good star trails and timelapse sunsets.

Like the waterproofing. I don't need to worry about it getting wet in pouring rain and I have taken a few videos of tadpoles under water.
 

Daymoth

Section Hiker
I have a hero 5 and ditto on avoiding the super wide formats. Also I have a love relationship with the bloody thing. Its so annoying and infuriating to use but so great for water stuff.
Havent tried using it for startrails, i will have a look!
 
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