Centrios 3-in-1 Digital Video Camera

[Alienverse]

Hey all, I was reading through several flyers this morning when I came across an interesting Camcorder in The Source's flyer. It is the Centrios 3-in-1 Digital Video Camera. I will give you a little product description from their website along with a picture.

Take digital stills or mini movies with this 3-in-1 digital video camera! Features a 3.2 MegaPixel CCD sensor, MPEG4 movie with voice feature, built-in flash and red-eye reduction–even a 1.8" TFT display so you can preview your shots. Other features include a massive storage driver, TV-out jack, sensor sensitivity, auto /ISP/100/200/40, lens F/2.8, auto-focus lens, 640 x 480 image resolution, 10-second self-timer, PC interface (USB 1.1), TV-out format NTSC/PAL and is powered by four AA batteries or AC adapter.



I am looking for a cheap video camera to shoot a couple of student movies and I thought that this would be ideal. My Camcorder that I own now is a Sony Super 8mm Camcorder that can only be transferred to PC through a capture card. Anyways, if anyone can tell me whether or not this camera is a good deal for $130 (CDN) please let me know. I am on a tight budget so I can not really look at the higher-end cameras. Any help would be great, thanks!

[gadgetguy]

IMO it's a good deal for what it is, but I don't think it's going to be good for your stated intentions. It looks like you'll have very little control for lighting effects or depth of field shots, and MPEG4 is not a good format for editing if you want to do any kind of transitions or effects. The USB connection is for transferring stills and possibly for web-camera use. It doesn't say what framerate the video uses, it might be quite low, like 15 fps. I also don't think you'll get more than a few seconds of video at a time.
I think you'll be better off to stick with what you have for now.

[thecoalman]

If you want a cam for TV video get a TV video camera, that is not a TV video camera but a gadget. Beside the format and possible framerate issue you'll find that you can only take a few minutes of video which needs to be transferred to your computer unless you want to carry around a bunch of expensive memory sticks. In the end your basically stuck with short clips that are only usable for computer playback.

MiniDV cams are pretty cheap, not quite as cheap as that but will give you better results with a lot less hassle.

[Alienverse]

Hmm, I figured something sounded fishy. I high-priced electronics store selling something that sounds like it should be triple the price. I am probably going to stop by the closest Source store to my house and see if they have the camera I want available to preview. Maybe I could tinker around with one on display. If not, I will just keep my Sony Super 8mm Camcorder and get a TV Tuner to upload the video onto my PC. Does anyone know if there is any quality loss when analog video is transferred to digital video? My Camcorder that I have now shoots good quality video but I want the quality to stay the same once I upload it onto my PC. Can anyone enlighten me on this?

[InXess]

First copy will be like original if captured with high enough bit rate (depending on the format - talking about MPEG2).
Capturing to low (or no-)compression scheme like DV will preserve full quality for naked eye (marginal loss).
With your Sempron PC you should be able to do on-the-fly MPEG2 capture from your camera via capture/TV card provided it is decent in quality.

[Alienverse]

Well I went to this computer warehouse store earlier today and I saw a couple of external capture devices for $50 (CDN). I checked out one of them and it looked quite promising. It had Composite and S-Video inputs and used a USB 2.0 output. The manual also said that you could use the device to record video so it is not just a tuning device only. I am probably going to The Source tomorrow to check out the Centrios 3-in-1 Digital Video Camera (if there are any left) and see how much it can record and how the framerate looks. I am hoping for something with at least 28 fps and can record at least half an hour of footage per memory card this way I can upload it onto my PC and send it off to the cutting board. I will be sure to post back here when I get to test out the video camera. Thank you for all the help!

[thecoalman]

Well I went to this computer warehouse store earlier today and I saw a couple of external capture devices for $50 (CDN). I checked out one of them and it looked quite promising. It had Composite and S-Video inputs and used a USB 2.0 output. The manual also said that you could use the device to record video so it is not just a tuning device only.

Make sure to check the tools section for comments on the device before purchasing. You're in luck though if you're in the market for new cam, you can kill two birds with one stone in this case. Get a mini-DV cam with pass-thru. Simply hook your analog cam up to the digital one and you can record the footage direct to tape or simply pass it on to the computer via firewire.

I am probably going to The Source tomorrow to check out the Centrios 3-in-1 Digital Video Camera (if there are any left) and see how much it can record and how the framerate looks. I am hoping for something with at least 28 fps and can record at least half an hour of footage per memory card this way I can upload it onto my PC and send it off to the cutting board. I will be sure to post back here when I get to test out the video camera. Thank you for all the help!

Most likeley it has a framrate selection of 15, 30 or both. that's pretty common for digital cameras. The 30 may convert OK if your in NTSC land. Don't know what the memory is on it but to put it into perspective a mini-DV tape holds almost 14GB's of video. As mentioned the cam your looking at uses a MPEG4 codec which can compress the video a lot more than what a DV cam will. that comes at a price though where flexibility, quality and conversion is concerned.

[Alienverse]

Well, it turns out all The Source stores in Toronto are out of stock. I guess too much contemplating about the video camera held me back on getting my hands on one of these babies. I guess I am going to have to buy the Video to PC device in order to upload my footage. This will hopefully work out well as it will cost me less plus I can digitize some old VHS cassettes as well. None the less, thank you all for the help, I really appreciate it.

[BJ_M]

your hi8 will still look much better -- frankly this centros is a pos (imo)

[Alienverse]

Yeah, that is what my friends were telling me. I was doing some test shots the other week and considering that my camcorder is not a professional video camera, it shoots some really good quality video. I am more worried about the video losing its quality when being transferred to PC but according to some of the posters in this thread, it will not happen. I guess my best bet would be to stick with my Sony 8mm for now.