Although a lot of folks have responded to this, I thought I'd add a few
comments from my own experience.

From: Marc Guido <editor@FIRSTTRACKSONLINE.COM>

So, the NAE video inspired me. I now really, really want a DV camera.



1) What features should I need?


If I had to pick one feature that I think is important for ski video it
would be this: BIG OPTICAL ZOOM. When I was first shopping for a digital
video camera, this was recommended to me as an important feature for filming
outdoors, and now my own experience has borne out the benefits of this
feature. Back in 1999 when I got my first camera, there seemed to be a
number of choices in the 15x-20x range, and I ultimately went with a JVC
camera that had a 16X optical zoom. Now, 2 1/2 years later, strangely
enough, it's more difficult to find cameras with optical zoom in this range.
I think this might be due to the trend toward smaller DV cameras, which I
guess aren't big enough to support the length of lenses necessary for big
magnification. If anyone has ever tried to shoot action ski pictures with
an instant 35 mm still camera with no zoom, you know how difficult it can be
to make the picture come out as anything but a lot of snow and a small skier
lost somewhere in the frame. The smaller DV cameras (I'll arbitrarily say
10X optical zoom or less) aren't too bad, but you will be limited in where
you can position yourself to get good shots and you may not be able to do
the longer (both time and distance) shots. So, it can come down to a
compromise between camera size and optical zoom, and you may need to decide
what is more important. Our cameras are what I'd call mid-sized (~8" x 4.5"
x 3.5"), and they can only fit in the largest of pockets (and even then they
feel quite bulky). However, we throw them in our fanny packs for an average
ski day and you can't even tell they're there when you're skiing. Anyway,
it's something to consider, depending on the type of video you'd like to
get. Oh, and pay no attention to digital zoom when contemplating what to
get. Digital zoom simply increases the size of the pixels and doesn't
really get you any closer to your subject at full DV resolution. I always
set my cameras to stop zooming at optical zoom only. Any good editing
program will allow you to do the equivalent of digital zoom on your video
anyway.



2) What features won't I need?


Again, in my opinion, digital zoom. It's fun to play with, and just about
any camera you get will have it, but if you're going to edit your material
on the computer, you can digital zoom it yourself.


4) How cheaply can I get away with and still not be left wanting?


Well under $1,000, maybe even under $500, depending on what you want. Check
out the cameras in the stores, read about them online, shop online too for
great prices.

5) Is there a model that you recommend?


Salesfolks have always recommended JVC and Sony to me for durability,
especially when I told them what I'd be using my camera for. I'm sure some
of the other company's cameras will hold up fine as well though.

7) How much HD space will I likely need for decent-length stuff?


Often more than you think you might. Our first movie was 48 minutes long,
and we used 20 Gigs on a 40 Gig hard drive for the captured footage.
However, we were quite selective and didn't go hog wild capturing everything
we wanted. For NAE, I captured everything under the sun that I thought I
might use, and we had 100 Gigs of material. We thought, fine, that's about
how much space we've got on our 2 drives, but it wasn't enough. You have to
be careful about using too much space on the drives or else access to the
data can become too slow for output to tape (data can get scattered, you
start using the slower parts of the drive etc.). This was a problem for us
and we had to get another 100 Gig drive which finally solved that issue.
The space issue probably isn't as much of a problem if you get something
like a RAID setup, but we're just using 7200 RPM IDE drives (and now a
firewire drive). There are also ways to capture lower resolution video on
the computer and work with that for editing, then somehow access the
full-res stuff for output. This of course saves space, but seems like it
might be rather complicated for the type of stuff I do.

8) Can I expect decent still-photo capability, or will I still be carrying
a digital still camera as well?


It depends if you want stuff for prints, or just for the web (and how big
you want your images to be). I just throw up frames from the cameras as
many of my stills on the web and they work out fine, but if you want to
print them out on paper, they are quite small at any good resolution. Some
cameras have the ability to get slightly higher resolution pictures for
stills, but it's nothing compared to the quality and options of a good
digital still camera.

J.Spin