The Summer of '76, Cameras and Motorcycles

The summer of 1976, my mother lent me the ancient family 8mm Eastman Kodak Brownie. Roland-my cool older cousin-and I spent the better part of the summer filming our "epic motorcycle-warrior stunt-saga. Sadly, it came to a crashing end when my father had the pleasure of digging me out of a Mojave Desert arroyo and running me over to the local emergency room. I never did find out what happened to all the old black and white footage.

This comes to mind, because my son turns thirteen next week. And he wants a video camera. First, I uttered an instinctive, "No." Next, I wondered whatever happened to that old 8mm." Finally, I went shopping.

Let me tell you. They no longer make cameras the way they used. In the first place, it's all digital. You no longer worry about film. You download it to your computer. Luckily, I know a guy (Mike). Everyone needs to know a guy like Mike. He walked me through it.

Before you even think about what brand, you need to pick a media. We got tape (which is as close as you get to my old 8mm film), DVD, hard drive, and flash memory. According to Mike, tape remains your best value for the money. But DVD and hard drive is a definite option. Now flash memory is the wave of the future, but for now, it is pricey. I figure that if my son still wants to play around with video when he turns eighteen, we can worry about flash memory.

Next, we have to decide on standard video or high definition. Mike feels high definition will add a few (or more) hundred to the cost. But it makes a visible difference in image quality. Next, we pick a lens. Ideally, he said just go with a standard 10x or 12x range for now (the higher the number the closer the zooms, but the bigger the lens).

Finally, we care about something called image stabilization. We want the highest optical number we can get (digital is okay, but given the current price to quality ratio, it makes sense to upgrade to optical). Finally, you got your bells and your whistles. Your remote controls, the various output devices, you want to make sure you can get your digital video onto whatever it is you need.

He told me to stick to the names I recognize. Canon makes good solid consumer digital camera. If you want to get more professional, you can move up to the Canon GL line. However, that will set you back close to $2,000 and I just want something my son can have fun with during the summer as I did back in 1976.

(Cross-Posted on Helium)