Digital Video camera Or Digital Still Camera

[Kona.S.P]

My perants are sick of me using there still camera, so i have decided to buy my own. I have around $700 - $800, but i want to know your veiws on weather i should get a Digital Video camera Or Digital Still Camera. the still camera can still take little videos. I am looking more at the still camera because they are smaller and easier to carry around. Also for $700 - $800 you can buy a way better still camera then a Video.
What are your opinions?

[mtbmx]

id save up some more and get a digital video cam especially if you want to make movies, it depends wat you are going to use it for. movies - video , pics - still camera.

i use a still camera the video quality is like 640x800 which is ok but i rather a video cam

[360xup]

My advice...
hmm it depends whether your preference is vids or pics, i think youll find that although still cams are good for pics, the quality of their vids is a little ordinary, if i had a spare $800 i would look at 2nd cameras which have the abillity of stills, then you cover both your bases, but then again, if weight and size is a major concern go for the still

[Kona.S.P]

Yer i know but i also want to take photo's and the photos that the video cameras take are really dodgy IMO.
It needs to be small so i can just slip it into my pocket.

[RedPill]

well i think you should be putting whatever you get in a camelback, i have both and i just take both of them in a camelback, but if you dont want anything to heavy or whateva you could get a pretty nice Still Digi cam for $800 or so.

[Kona.S.P]

I dont have a camel pack.

[dromana7411]

digital video for sure, there sick, if i had money id get one,

[rasta]

sony cybershot "carl zeiss" dscp100 5.1 megapixel, thats the gog

[GordonG]

You could save up the little bit extra (or do some shopping around) and get a Canon G5. Neat little camera, takes movies as well, and has lots of good bits in it including customisable operating modes. I have the earlier model (G3) as a backup to my 300D.

http://www.canon.com.au/products/cameras/digital_compact_cameras/powershotg5.html

GG

[Commander Dilsnikk]

Boys, boys, boys... calm down here...

Mate, the biggest decision that you really have to make is what you actually want to DO with your camera.
The fact is, if you even have to ask this question to people on a forum you're probably better off spending your hard-earned on a still camera.

If you want to branch out into the wide world of video production you'd better be committed and be prepared to put in a bit of time, money and effort to make sure you actually produce some reasonable stuff. Not to put you off at all but it's harder to master the basics of this discipline, in comparison to still photography. You will also have to fork out for video editing software if you're really going to make it worthwhile. There's no point spending all of the money you saved up to buy a camera and not being able to create anything worth watching because you have to use Windows Movie Maker or something similar. A lot of people forget that video editing (if done well) is by far the most time consuming and most important part of the process.
If you get into video production you'll want to be committed to it and ready to take some time learning how to make something worth watching. Let's face it... a large percentage of the stuff that pops up on Farkin isn't.

Having said that... with 700-800 to spend you'll have trouble buying a worthwhile video camera anyway.

Stick to stills for now... it's cheaper, it's multi-purpose (it's great to have a camera at parties, etc.) and at the rate a reasonable one goes for now you could get it and have money left over to buy a Camelback to put it in!

Have fun.

[Superman]

is this kind of like buying a hardtail(in this case still cam) rather than a dually(in this case video cam), on the same budget?

i would like a digital video camera but i think i would get bored of it. they tend to use batterys alot more too i think.

in PC User they did a test of still digi cameras around 800 dollar mark.
i think it was the june issue, but check a library for it.