Hi videotechs,
I purchased a new video camera specifically for filming R/C flying. Bummer that it just does not do a good job at focusing and after exploring the capabilities it is simply not going to do the trick.

Can anyone here advise on a good video camera, prefereably Mini DV, that will hold the subject aircraft in focus, deal well with the continuously changing lighting conditions and it also easy enough to use that I do not need to change to a videotography hobby in order to learn to use it properly. I guess that I would want to limit my spending to $1500.00, although if it were one of the pro-quality cameras I would go a little higher and search for a good used one. If a camera exists that can do a great job for this subject that is much cheaper, that is also fine. I do not have to have the best available, just one that will do the job properly.

Thank You,
Mark

Hi Mark,

I use a Sony TRV20. It has been my experience that the autofocus function sucks for R/C flight purposes.

When recording planes in flight, I turn the autofocus off. I zoom all the way out, manually focus on some distant object. Then, I leave it alone for the entire flight. I've had good luck this way.

Next stop: Fluid head tripod.

Mark,
I have a sony camcorder (Hi-8) that works fine for my flight line films. The trouble, if I understand you correctly, is that you cannot see the airplane in the viewfinder. The trouble isn't the camcorder, but in the viewfinder. I dont know the specific's of your camera, but can assume one thing. It probably has a small screen to view with. The trouble is,when you view the video on a regular video screen, you have 525 or so lines of pictures to view. To show the same image on a 3" camcorder screen some of the lines have to disappear, as it can't fit all those lines on that little screen. I've seen a plane disappear on my screen, but when I play it back on the television, it is still there.
Only thing I try is to zoom in to find the plane, then zoom out a little and try to follow it. The further away and smaller the airplane the harder it is to video.
Personally I dont think buying another video camera will cure your problem, only empty out your wallet more.
I hope this helps your question.

Look for a camera with optical image stablization, rather than digital image stablization. You lose some sharpness with the digital process. You should be able to find one in your price range with optical image stablization.

I disabled the digital zoom on my Sony vid cam. And yes, use the manual zoom on the smaller birds. Once in the air have the person click it to manual once its in focus. Thats how I do it.

You can see my vids below on my websites.

Thanks

There's some good info on the net, go to google & do a search on digital camera review. You'll find a bunch of good stuff. I've got a really nice Sony DCR VX2000. It's absolutely awesome, but slightly out of the range you specified. If you really really look you may be able to pick one up for 1800-1900. Best low light camera out there, short of the really high $$$ pro gear. Takes excellent pics at the night flies, fireworks, etc, with no to very little graininess. Color reproduction is damn near perfect and sharpness is excellent as well. Some TV networks actually use this as a production camera. It easily will handle the varying lighting conditions you speak of, and even has 2 nuetral density filters built in to it, and tells you when to use them. As far as focus goes, it does a very good job. It will on occasion when the subject is to far away drift out and back in, but when the plane is not so small as to be a speck it stays locked on. It also has a nice feature when in manual focus - an "autofocus" toggle / infinity button. Really glad I purchased it. Only problem? It's a little heavy (but not like the pro gear you may be interested in). Another good but less expensive is the Sony TRV900. Doesn't have all the features, nor as good low light capabilities, but argueably takes some of the best pro-sumer vid out there.

Want to shop around? THE format is Mini DV - forget everything else. Lossless editing, near (or even better than) broadcast quality and computer editing capabilities are the reason. Don't even think about buying a camera without image stabilization, any vid you shoot of planes requires it. BUT (contrary to the previous poster) stay away from the low end cameras with optical stabilization systems. The low end optical stab systems don't perform any better than digital stabilization and typically the mfr tacks on a fair amount for them. Big CCD's are a myth. The bigger the CCD the more light it takes to drive it, and your low light level video shots look terrible (like at dawn/dusk, in a room with 1 light or dimly lit). As far as stills go, don't buy a video camera because of its still image capabilities. The performance in video mode will suffer if it takes large stills! If you want stills, buy a cheap digital still camera, even the cheap ones take better pictures than most DV cameras. Another gimmick: high power digital zooms. They don't work worth a damn. Screws up the stabilization system and the pics are so pixelated & grainy on some cameras it's amazing the mfr would even sell them. You're far better off with a camera that has a decent optical zoom (10-20x), with little to no digital. My camera has 10X optical and 48x digital. At 48x it's pixelated to the point where a plane looks out of focus. 24X is the max you'll need for flying pics. Another gimmick - 0 lux ratings - yep it works (if the camera can focus), but you loose all color (actually goes green), the picture gets really grainy and the frame rate drops to nothing. I know a couple people that bought this hype, and after the gimmick wore off it became useless to them. As far as lux ratings, this is a subjective rating that each manufacturer come up with on their own, Each manufacturer has it's own opinion of what an acceptable picture looks like, and also uses different test methods for rating the cameras, so a 20 lux camera from one mfr may perform better than a 3 lux camera from another given the same conditions. Controls: in general, the more manual controls the better, but this is another thing mfrs charge for. A plane thing I can point to here is shutter speed; often auto mode makes blades/propellars freeze, and the video looks funny. Shutter priority corrects this problem. Guess that's about it off the top of my head. Good luck and happy shopping!

Thank you all for your input. I shall start by killing the autofocus and see what happens. If no joy, then I have some good advice to go hunting.

It is difficult to make a wise decision in this field when I do not have the time to really research and learn about the technology.

Mark

My Canon ZR65MC is relatively cheap and does a great job in all areas (well it's not great at still photos).

I even put it in the cockpit of my 35% Extra this weekend and it still took great video lol. Kind of nauseating though.......