Canon, Nikon... something else?

[BlueViolet]

I'm looking to get the best video camera I possibly can under $600. Or at least very around that number.

I make videos regularly of not just camming-related stuff, but I have a ton of other projects that I need really good quality video. The project I am about to start filming is going to be shot a lot in a low-light as well, and I know that's a problem with a lot of cameras.

Originally, I was set on the Canon EOS Rebel T3i, but I'm kind of fascinated by the Nikon D5100 and a few other Nikons as well. Whatever it is, I need something that has an external mic jack as well.

If anyone has any suggestions at all for what I should get, please let me know!

 

[Shutterbuck]

I'm not a brand whore myself... I shoot Canon because It's what I have always shot.
So my advice is to use whatever brand feels most natural in your hands... Nikon makes some damned fine cameras but I find their focus and zoom rings counter intuitive as they turn opposite of Canon's. The same goes for the on board light metering. It's just ass backward to me.
That said... with a budget of $600.00 you may be sadly disappointed with the performance of your camera in low light situations. Video quality at high ISO suffers a bit in the consumer level DSLR's... You can compensate a bit with some faster lenses if you can afford them. The kit lenses that come with any of those consumer level cameras won't perform.

If you can scrape up/beg/borrow/steal a little extra money... go for the Canon 5d mkii. It's on sale at Amazon right now for $1529.00... this should only last until January 5th as Canon is offering a $400.00 instant rebate right now.

P.S. If you go with a Canon... find and download Magiclantern! It's free and has some pretty amazing features.
I don't shoot video but I've played with it a bit. It's just not my thing... I'm not passionate enough about it to really put the time in.

Edit to add:
You might also check out borrowlenses.com
You can rent lenses/camera bodies and experiment to decide what you like best.

 

[BlueViolet]

I'm not a brand whore myself... I shoot Canon because It's what I have always shot.
So my advice is to use whatever brand feels most natural in your hands... Nikon makes some damned fine cameras but I find their focus and zoom rings counter intuitive as they turn opposite of Canon's. The same goes for the on board light metering. It's just ass backward to me.
That said... with a budget of $600.00 you may be sadly disappointed with the performance of your camera in low light situations. Video quality at high ISO suffers a bit in the consumer level DSLR's... You can compensate a bit with some faster lenses if you can afford them. The kit lenses that come with any of those consumer level cameras won't perform.

If you can scrape up/beg/borrow/steal a little extra money... go for the Canon 5d mkii. It's on sale at Amazon right now for $1529.00... this should only last until January 5th as Canon is offering a $400.00 instant rebate right now.

P.S. If you go with a Canon... find and download Magiclantern! It's free and has some pretty amazing features.
I don't shoot video but I've played with it a bit. It's just not my thing... I'm not passionate enough about it to really put the time in.

Edit to add:
You might also check out borrowlenses.com
You can rent lenses/camera bodies and experiment to decide what you like best.

Thanks! I'd love to go with something a lot more expensive, definitely, but my projects right now are primarily for YouTube and camming so it doesn't have to be exceptionally perfect yet and I can upgrade later. This is mostly just for a starter into my main projects and depending on how far I get into them, I'll upgrade when I can--unless I can scrape together a little over $900 in the next 10 days, then I'll go for that one, which isn't completely impossible but probably not going to be able to happen unfortunately. But I'll keep that one in mind for when I do upgrade!

 

[southsamurai]

just my two cents, but i miss the old nikon i sold off last year to finance christmas. i used to be a cannon die hard when it came to SLRs but that thing converted me. the basic lenses seem to be a shade crisper, and i find the interface on the digital models to be a hair faster and easier

 

[16_bit]

Just a thought, depending on how much taking images is important to you, but have you thought about a camcorder? If you're going to be using it more for video, you might be able to find ones that handle low-light better for the same price. I don't know much about camcorders so maybe someone else will be able to answer it better.
And i believe a lot of camcorders now can take images but it's likely they won't be as good as quality as a dslr. Might be worth looking at.

 

[SoTxBob]

I had a JVC GR HD1U for awhile. I was very pleased with it but sold when I had no use for it any longer. I've wished I hadn't gotten rid of it many times since. You can probably find one used and make your budgeted $$ work. Thing about the used ones, you usually get a bunch of extras with it that would cost quite a bit when new. My usual source for used stuff is Adorama or ebay. :twocents-02cents:

 

[inkydoo]

I'm looking to get the best video camera I possibly can under $600. Or at least very around that number.

I recently got the Panasonic HC-V700, which is a Consumer Reports "Best Buy" from their last review of video cameras, and while I don't remember the exact price, I think it was right around $600 (though I had to buy the SD card separately, which might have added $15).

Of course, everybody has their own definition of low-light, but Consumer Reports ranked it as good on low-light recording, and it has a lamp on the front that can automatically turn on in a low-light situation (you can also set it to manual control I believe). While I haven't recorded anything in what I really think of as low-light, I have recorded in situations where the lamp comes on, and it made a big difference in how the video looked. It has pretty good battery life, and recording time depends on how large an SD card you put in it. It also takes really good still photos, IMO. So far (about six weeks) I'm pretty happy with it in general.

The only thing I'm not really crazy about is that it doesn't really play very nice on Macs, (it uses the AVCHD standard), and the included software is Windows only. Of course, I'm a linux guy, so I'm not super-annoyed by having to do things in a slightly more-roundabout way (since plenty of devices don't even think about how they would work with Linux), but I can imagine an average user who only has access to a Mac being fairly irritated by it.

 

[Tristyn]

I shoot Canon. I have a Rebel T3 at the moment with a couple of lenses, and I have my sights on a 5D Mark II or III. That said, I don't think that one brand is better than the other-- Canon and Nikon both have a decent reputation and make nice gear. *shrugs* I've always shot Canon, so I've stuck with it so far. Once you buy into one brand it's harder to make the switch, haha.

 

[photony]

I have shot Nikon since...well, probably twice as long as you've been alive.. the point about lens rotation vs. Canon is a moot point, because you get used to whatever you're using....Did you know that EVERY nikon lens made since 1959 will fit the current DSLRs? Find a great deal on ebay or Craigs list, and don't worry if it will fit or work...Canon makes some GREAT equipment, and I'm not knocking them in the least..but, with 8 Nikon film bodies, 2 digital bodies and a dozen lenses, my heart belongs to....