I own several GoPro cameras and constantly am making videos with and about them for my YouTube channel, however, I had not had any experience with Sony's line of action cams prior to purchasing the FDR-X1000V. This is their newest and most advanced model, and is aimed to compete directly with the GoPro HERO 4 Black Edition. With that in mind I performed many tests comparing the quality and features of the two (but more on that later).
First I set about trying to understand every mode and setting which the Sony cam offers. Initially I was extremely put off by several things, namely: the lack of a dedicated on/off button, slow menu response times when tweaking settings on the camera, and the amount of clicks it takes to get through the menus. As I used the cam more and got used to the way Sony does things, the menus didn't seem quite as complex and I was finally able to completely understand the way that the video resolutions
Checkout the two videos below to see if you can see any difference in quality between the GoPro HERO 3+ and the GoPro HERO 4. While they are not the same video (and were actually filmed almost a year apart), they are very similar. I filmed them both at the same indoor track and field complex and both were set to the highest resolution that they could be at while still recording at 120 frames per second. Both GoPros were also set to Protune mode.
It's to say for sure which one produces better video quality, but after watching both of the videos, my initial reaction was that the GoPro 3+ was a little clearer. This would make sense because many people have been complaining about fuzziness when recording in 1080p at 120fps on the GoPro 4. Let me know what you think in the comments below or on my Facebook and Twitter.
A lot of people are creating and posting videos to Youtube nowadays (nearly 24hrs of video is uploaded every second). This means that if you want your videos to standout among the crowd they should not only be creative, engaging, and original, but also look good to the viewer. While the look of a video is mainly dependent upon you, the creator, director, cameraman, and producer, no one can deny the effect of filming on a good quality camera or camcorder. Since the majority of the devices on the market today are capable of filming in Full HD (1080x1920), it has become a lot harder to choose the camera which fits your needs. Luckily, I've taken the time to break it all down for you below.
As I see it, there are currently four basic categories to choose from for a video recording device under $1000: mobile devices (cellphones/tablets), point-and-shoots (including Flip Camcorders), camcorders (such as the Canon Vixia), and DSLRs. Like I said, these are basic categories, and they blatantly ignore mirror-less cameras, Wifi enabled point-and-shoots, and other new but rapidly expanding categories.
Mobile Devices:
+Portable and Convenient
+Share-ability
+Can usually edit the footage on the device itself
-No Optical Zoom
-Relatively Low Bit Rates (MegaBytes Per Second)
-Hard to hold steady resulting in the classic "shaky cellphone" look
Point-and-Shoots:
+Relatively Inexpensive
+Small, Lightweight, and Portable
-Few to no manual settings
-Very few accessories available
Camcorders:
+Best Autofocus of any Camera Catagory
+Designed exclusively for videography
+Good built in mics
+Amazing Built in Stabilization
-Designed especially for shooting video
-Slightly more expensive
DSLRs:
+Can do it all
+Able to achieve the "filmesque" look with their shallow depth of field
+Great for manual focusing
+The ability to change lenses
+Tons and tons of accessories available
-Worst at Autofocusing
-Produces very large video files which can be nearly impossible to edit on slower computers
-Slightly more expensive
So these are some of the pros and cons for each category. If you want more information on this and some sample video comparisons, watch the video below:
One thing I just want to emphasize from my video is how having the best camera won't instantly make you a great filmmaker and vice versa. The video that probably demonstrates this the clearest is Sandcastle Sensei by YouTube star Freddie Wong. The video was shot completely on the Samsung Galaxy S3 and it was edited using only iMovie. The video is a testament to Freddie's true talent and proves that he didn't get famous just because he could afford a good camera.
So that's basically it from me on how to choose the best camera for YouTube. If you have any questions on the issue or anything else tech related, feel free to leave them in the comment sor hit me up on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube and I wish you the best of luck with your next camera purchase!
