If i want to do video recording for making short films, shud i buy a camera with video option or a camcorder?

Question by addy: If i want to do video recording for making short films, shud i buy a camera with video option or a camcorder?
I have background in tv production and have graduated a year back..want to experiment in making short videos..i need something which is give good quality output as i need to show my work and also something affordable as I dant invest huge amt in buying a camera or camcorder

Best answer:

Answer by Mr. Knowitall
I have a Canon S2 IS, a still camera that does videos. I bought it for stills, of course, and I never thought I’d make videos with it but it works amazingly well. With a 1 gig card I can record for about an hour. It has a 12x zoom, and you can use the zoom while you’re shooting. And it records sound in stereo! And I find that often when I’m out taking pictures there are things that look better on a 1 or 2 minute video.

But if I was primarily interested in making videos, I’d buy a video camera. For one thing, it would be nice to have one with a mic. jack, so you could use a mic. closer to the subject. DV or mini-DV would be easier to download and edit, and probably have better resolution. Imagine Stabilization would be a nice thing (actually my Canon has that). For any kind of serious work at all you’d want a nice heavy tripod too.

I am amazed at how cheap these things are today. I’m not really an expert so I can’t say for sure, but I think you can buy a pretty good digital video camera a cheap or cheaper than pretty good still camera.

I’ve played around with the idea of making a short edited video with my Canon. I think the biggest problem is that it would have to have narration or a sound track assembled separately. The mics on the camera are good enough, but to get someone’s voice they would have to be right up close.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!