It's Camcorder Season! (page 3)
Jennifer O'Rourke is an Emmy™ award-winning videographer & video editor and Videomaker's Managing Editor.
The moment you open the fresh new package of your latest camcorder purchase, your old camcorder might just shudder a sigh of anticipated neglect among the mothballs. Don't despair, poor little machine! For your many loyal years of performance, you have a myriad of new uses in a new designation as Spare Camcorder.
- Boom Cam When it's old, you're not as protective of it, so you can do things with your second camera you might not attempt with your fresh new baby. Attach it to a monopod for a high angle shot above the crowd, or hang it outside the car for a driving point of view.
- Tree Cam Hide it among the presents or set it in the Christmas Tree to get a truly unique POV shot of the kids as they rush to open their presents on Christmas morning.
- Kid Cam My 2-year-old granddaughter loves to play with my very expensive camcorder. Every time I pull it out, we play a game of tug-of-war for ownership. So I bought a cheap, used Hi8, set it to record, and let her run around the house with it. A truly interesting POV possibility!
- Bike Cam I once duct-taped an old film camera to the front of my son's bike to get some interesting POV shots of his first shaky, awkward, and extremely funny attempts to learn to ride.
- Digitizer Cam Even if VHS is a dying breed, there's still millions of feet of footage all over the country sitting in shoe boxes and closets, waiting to be edited. If you have the need to edit someone's old family archives, an old Hi8 or VHS camcorder can be worth its weight in gold.
And if you're upgrading your old Mini DV, you will save some wear on your new camcorder by using the old one as your digitizer deck.
