CamCorder Advice

DaveOb

Hi
We are just wanting to start filming in our jewellery workshop, for both YouTube and instore TV loops. Then maybe onto our website. I have been using an iPhone, GoPro and my Canon 60d camera. Each has its limitations and is not 100%. I am now wondering if it is worth investing in a decent camcorder. So I have been looking around and getting more confused and hoping someone can make some recommendations.

Lighting is not too bad as the jewellers have quite good bench lighting
I would like the ability to get some close up shots of jewellery.
My main image frame would be 'portrait' sized so not wide angled and quite tight
I have tripods
If pricing was reasonable would you get 2 and have one on each side?

Regards and thanks
Dave

Terfyn

Modern cams are pretty good. The ones I have (see below) will stay in focus up to 2 inches away from the subject. Plus they will work in low light conditions.
My experience is with PC based video editors but, I guess, you will want to mix photos with video. Are you making "demo" vids? Again the camcorders will all have the ability to take "Stills" at the same quality as the video. The PC editor I use will allow direct download to YouTube and Vimeo.
If you need extra lighting, example: for a fixed video set up, I suggest LED photofloods. They normally have both dimmers and colour temperature changing  (usually two sets of LED bulbs and the ability to mix between them) plus many come with coloured gels to fix in front of the lamp

DaveOb

Thanks for the advice. I'll have a look at these. Hard to know exactly how they perform so its helpful to know.
Thanks again for your time
Dave

JabbaNut

Can I ask what fault you find with the 18 megapixel, full HD 1080p Canon 60D ?

DaveOb

I am using a 24-105 lens. I find I am not getting great depth of field. It takes beautiful movies but as the jeweller moves I lose a lot. So I either have to constantly re-focus/zoom which means I leave the other camera/phone

Terfyn

I do not know the Canon 60D so cannot comment. One advantage of using a camcorder is that they usually have auto focus so your problem of refocussing would not occur.

12harry

FWIW some camcorders have "Tracking Focus" as well. This is slightly different in that you select the object via the LCD touchscreen and then as it moves, the focus keeps up.
Conventional AF, by comparison, really needs the subject to be quite large so it can maintain the focus.

DSLRs are not often good for Video.... while their video-quality is excellent,  it needs quite some skill to get it right.  
Camcorders are designed for non-film-makers (mostly) and should be more-forgiving.
I'm not sure what size you are filming.... I expect jewellery to be very small, so to show the sparkle you will need high magnification. This results in needing a lot of light and often the lens ( and cameraman!) will get in the way; so you may have to think about a ring-light ( which attaches to the lens ), so the light is quite close (and bright), giving you a greater depth of focus.  However, it may affect the sparkle- something to experiment with.
You can add close-up lenses ( esp. to DSLRs - which will accept close-up tubes, bellows etc. )..... and for extreme close-up this may be better than a camcorder (Also, you can buy "expensive" Macro-lenses designed for high magnification....
Your chosen Video Editor should allow you to mix sources of films/stills which can ( may?) should add interest to your productions.  Don't forget the "human interest" aspect - e.g.  when the tea arrives. This allows a break in the filming - and could introduce another skilled person discussing alternative solutions.

Joining a local Film-Making Club might be an introduction to the technical aspects of your filming. Take some examples and see what the suggest.

Cheers.