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We would like to improve the online content of our student newspaper by including a series of video reports from around campus. We need to buy some equipment, but we only have around £300. Hosting for the videos will presumably be done through YouTube.
Neil Pooran
YouTube has made mediocre technical quality acceptable, as long as the content is interesting, so you can now shoot video with a mobile phone or a pocket-sized camcorder such as the Flip Video Ultra. But these are limited, and you would be better off with a standard zoom camcorder that can handle a wider range of conditions. It probably doesn't matter which you buy, but you don't need high definition or widescreen for web video. You will, however, need something with a tripod bush and an external microphone socket. Putting the camera on a tripod, getting a microphone close to the subject and adding plenty of light are more important than minor variations in the specification of the camera.
For making short reports, you may find it handier to use a camcorder that can record to SD Flash memory cards: they're cheap, you can change them quickly, and it's easy to copy the results to any PC for editing. However, miniDV cameras still offer the best value for money for serious movie-making. As these are becoming increasingly unfashionable, you can probably pick up an excellent outfit secondhand for around half your budget.
