Video Cameras for Travelers

Video adds a new dimension to the documentation of your trip; it can capture the travelers' personalities as you go through the triumphs and tribulations of life on the road. Whereas photos capture a single split second in time, videos can more accurately reflect the whole of what you are seeing and doing. It can capture the excitement of gazing upon a world wonder for the first time or the everyday routines of traveling. The movies you produce will be cherished every bit as much as a scrapbook or photographic journal. If you are maintaining a website or blog, video can bring your experiences to life and make them more intimate to viewers as they personally become more a part of your expedition. Check out our Vimeo videos.

Video production on the road can be almost as simple as keeping an electronic scrapbook of short clips or as complex as producing a full length DVD movie. Correspondingly the equipment needed may be as simple as a digital still camera or as complex as bringing along a video camera and a laptop computer equipped with a full featured video editing program. I'll discuss the pros and cons of three scenarios a traveler may use starting with the simplest method and then ending with the most complex.

If you are carrying a laptop it would simplify things a bit since you could store and produce the movies on your own computer.

Simplest Way of Taking Video

The simplest way to take a video is to use a digital still camera. Almost all of them can take video. If you're concerned about money or carrying extra equipment and not concerned about quality, this is the option for you. Simply put your camera in video mode and take the video.

The quality of the videos varies greatly with the camera you purchase. Check out reviews of the camera you are thinking of purchasing for video quality. My Sony DSC-H7 takes fairly good video. Using a still camera for video is fine for YouTube and email videos, but if you want fairly decent DVD quality you won't get it with even the best still camera; you'll have to get a dedicated video camera. Another thing to consider is buying extra memory chips for your still camera as the video clips take up lots of memory.

A Step Up: The Pocket Video Camera

The smallest, cheapest, simplest dedicated video camera you can purchase is a pocket video camera, whose basic purpose is to carry everywhere and shoot at the spur of the moment. They are the video camera version of a point and click still camera and are the number-one selling video camera in America. Along with a good quality Cannon video camera, we use one extensively on our Alaska to Argentina trip. It's the kids' video camera and our video camera when we don't want to hassle with our more bulky Cannon. It takes decent video. I've made a DVD with its video, and it came out alright - not great, but acceptable. It’s great for a YouTube video, check out the first video we made with ours.

The big advantage of the pocket video camera is that it's unbelievably easy to use - just point and shoot, but that's about all you can do. They are incredibly portable; they can easily fit in a shirt pocket. Other than the video quality, cons include the lack of features most importantly the zoom lens. The largest I've seen is a 3x optical.

Some examples of a pocket video camera are the Flip Ultra, Toshiba Camileo S10, Kodak Zi6, and Creative Vado HD. I am carrying a Flip which serves its purpose very well.

Another Step Up: Better Quality Video

For really good DVD quality you will need a good quality video camera. In addition to the video quality, these cameras are loaded with great features such a zoom lenss and extended life batteries. But it all comes at a price. Since the cameras a heavier and larger than pocket video camera, they are less portable. They are also more expensive.

I use a Cannon FS 100 and am happy with it. The price was right and it is a relatively lightweight and compact camera.

Factors to Consider

When narrowing your choice down to a single video camera to purchase, you are hit with an overwhelming number of cameras which vary in portability, features, quality, and prices. They should all be taken into consideration. Here is a description of these factors with emphasis on the needs of travelers.

• Portability: For me, this is critical. If a camera is not easily accessible, I tend not to use it as much as I'd like to. When traveling, your belongings tend to be very compactly stowed away and things are not as accessible as they normally are. You can only have so many accessible things! A smaller, more portable camera can easily fit in a pocket whether it is on your jacket, backpack, fanny pack, purse or pannier. Anywhere else would be inconvenient and hard to get to. The smaller the camera, the more portable it is.
• Quality: The quality of your movie is determined by the lens, the number of pixels and the image sensor.

  Too much emphasis is put on the number of pixels a camera has. Many cameras (both still and video) are advertised as an 8 megapixel or 10 megapixel camera and people think that this is this alone determines image quality. While important, the number of pixels is only part of the story. Put simply, your camera creates an image like this:

  • light comes through the lens of the camera
  • the light is captured by pixels
  • the captured light is converted into a digital signal by an image sensor
  • the digital signal is stored on the storage media

  The image quality depends on these four steps and any weak link in them degrades you video. A lower quality lens (or scratched lens for that matter) will degrade the light that hits you pixels. The larger the pixels and more of them capture better colors and a sharper image. The pixels sit atop the image sensor. A larger sensor will fit larger pixels and more of them. So in a nutshell, the larger the image sensor (usually measured in fractions of an inch) the better. You're better off buying a video camera with a larger image sensor even if it has fewer pixels than a competitive model with a smaller sensor and more pixels. Cramming too many pixels on a small sensor might sell more cameras, but will actutally degrade the image. The last link in this process is the way the digital signal is stored on the storage media. Video is compressed before it is stored to save space on the storage media. The more the video is compressed, the more quality it will lose.

• Features: There are many features that may come with a camera. Some are very useful while others are a waste of time and money adding to the weight and complexity of the camera. The following items are the more important features that need to be considered:
  • Portability: For me, this is critical. If a camera is not easily accessible, I tend not to use it as much as I'd like to. When traveling, your belongings tend to be very compactly stowed away and things are not as accessible as they normally are. You can only have so many accessible things! A smaller, more portable camera can easily fit in a pocket whether it is on your jacket, backpack, fanny pack, purse or pannier. Anywhere else would be inconvenient and hard to get to. The smaller the camera, the more portable it is.
  • Image Stabilization: This is certainly a nice feature especially if you tend to use a strong zoom lens. They remove only the finer movements such as when recording with a shaky hand. They won't remove major movement such as when you are filming from a jeep speeding down a bumpy road. Be advised: There are two kinds of image stabilization - optical and digital. Optical is great but digital significantly reduces the quality of your video, and, as far as I'm concerned, worthless.
  • Batteries: Battery life when you are on the road is critical because many times you won't have the means to recharge a dead battery. What ever kind of battery you have you should carry a fully charged spare. As to how long they last depends of the type of battery and the particular camera you use. Some cameras use more energy than others so the life of the same battery will differ on different cameras. There are basically three types of batteries: Lithium-ion, AA-size NiMH, and AA alkaline. Both the Lithium-ion and NiMH need to be recharged while the AA alkaline batteries are discarded when they go dead.
  • Still Photo Capabilities: Most video cameras come with the capability of taking still pictures. This is sure convenient since you could bring just one camera for taking both videos and still pictures. The only problem is that the vast majority of video cameras have at best so-so photo quality when compared with a dedicated still digital camera. Some digital cameras take much better stills than others (see quality above).
  • Standard Definition (SD) vs High Definition (HD): You can record in several different video formats, the two most important are HD and SD. HD is the better quality format since there are more pixels which define your movie. This translates into richer colors and a sharper picture. It's what most media is using or switching over to. Cameras recording in this format are more expensive and the clips take up more memory. They record in a resolution of 1280x720 or 1920x1080 pixels (16:9 ratio which is widescreen).

    SD used to be the standard format. It doesn't have the quality of HD but is not as memory intensive, and of course SD cameras are less expensive. They record in a resolution of 740 x 480 (16:9 ratio which is widescreen) or the traditional 640 x 480 (4:3 ratio which was was the standard for TV). Widescreen is artistically a more pleasant format to watch which is one of the reasons they made SD widescreen. Check out this movie in SD widescreen and this movie in traditional SD. Notice that in the widescreen movie I inserted some traditional SD, so yes, you can combine them using some video editing programs. Also notice the black space on either side of the traditional SD movie - YouTube has gone to widescreen so if you upload a traditional SD video, it will be converted to widescreen and the extra space filled in with black empty space.

    With some cameras you can choose which format to record in.

  • Camera Body: For me, I've found that the body style of the camera makes a huge difference in how steady I can hold the camera. When purchasing your camera see how it feels in your hand. Can you hold it steady? When I compare the rectangular shape of my Sony Handycam to the barrel style of my Cannon, I can hold the Sony much steadier when I use a strong zoom.
  • File Format: After the light is converted into a digital signal, this signal must be coded and stored. The file format determines the way it is coded and there are many of them. I didn't consider this when I bought my Cannon and as it turned out files were saved in a MOV format which is appropriate for a Mac, but not Windows. Consequently I couldn't use the Windows Movie Maker to edit the files. Actually I could have but I would have had to convert each file to the appropriate format, a very time consuming task I won't do. Fortunately I use a store bought video editing program that can import MOV files.
  • Storage Media: Storage media is where your video camera stores the digital video and is an important decision for the traveler- especially if it's an extended trip where you want to back up your movie clips. I think for most travelers flash memory cards are the best option for many reasons. First I will describe flash memory cards and then I'll describe the other media.
    • Flash Memory Cards: These cards store digital video on memory cards, most commonly SD/SDHC cards. There are many advantages of flash memory. Here are some of them:
      • memory cards are very light and very small so a camera that uses them will be lighter and smaller than a comparable camera which uses other methods.
      • since there are no moving parts the camera will use less power and therefore the battery life will be longer than cameras that use other methods. In addition the camera will be more durable since there are no delicate moving parts to break from vibration or dropping the camera.
      • you can backup you video by mailing the cards in an envelope to a trusted friend back home.
      • they are very durable so they are less apt to be damaged when they are stored in your luggage. I've heard of people dropping them into the sea and successfully recovering the data on them.
    • Hard Disk Drive (HDD): Some cameras have a HDD built into them. They can store much more data than a flash memory card but they have moving parts making the camera less durable. It's also harder to back up your video. I wouldn't suggest traveling with one of these cameras unless, like some Sony video camera, it comes with both a HDD and memory card.

    • DVD and tape media: Both these methods require lots of intricate moving parts making the camera more prone to damage. In addition this media is prone to damage when it is stored in you luggage. Most importantly, camera manufacturers are steadily phasing out tape and DVD-based models. I'd strongly recommend not using these cameras.

  • Price: My suggestion is to first determine the minimum of what you want in a video camera and then find specific cameras which fit what you need, then look at the prices and decide on how much you want to pay. In general you get what you pay for; the less you pay the fewer the features you'll get and the lower the quality of the camera will be.

  Laptop Considerations

  • Computer: If you are planning on toting a laptop along with you and want to use it for video editing, most computers are ready to go. Here are some things to look for when shopping for a computer to do video editing on:
    • Operating System: Choose a computer with a Windows or Macintosh operating system, don't choose a Linux operating system since, unless you have a lot of technical know how, it is hard to use this system to do video editing.
    • Ports: Somehow you have to get the clips from your video camera onto your computer. Most video cameras use flash memory and/or a USB connection. Check out your video camera then make sure your computer has the correct ports to transfer your clips. What I really like about my Cannon is that it uses SDHC memory cards to store the footage on. I can simply take the card out of my camera and insert it into the corresponding port in my computer. The video files are then ready to drag and drop to the computer. Very convenient - no extra cords, as simple as can be.
    • Screen Size: The larger the screen, the easier it is to do video editing. I do video editing on my Acer Aspire One with its small, small 8.9 inch screen. It's a pain because I'm continuosly scrolling around to get at the correct position on the screen. It works, but with a larger 12 inch screen I could do a better job in less time.

  • Video Editing Software: Windows Movie Maker is free, easy to use, and works great. If you use a Mac it will come with iMovie which is similar. If you don't want to bring a computer with you but want to do video editing, I don't see any reason why you couldn't do the editing in internet cafes. Not in the States, but throughout Latin America, these computers are virtually unprotected so you could download the clips to their computer, use Windows Movie Maker to edit them, then upload them to YouTube or store the final product on a flash drive. If you do this be sure that the file format the video camera stores the clips with is compadible with Windows Movie Maker.

    Since the Windows Movie Maker that came with my XP operating system couldn't handle MOV, I had to use other video editing software. I used a relatively cheap one, Pinnacle Studio Plus, and I really like it. You can purchase an upgrade to it so you can have multiple video tracks and the capability of transfoming your photos into movies by moving and zooming in and out of them (the Ken Burns effect).