Best Camera for Pics and Video?

[Chrisco3897]

This might be expecting too much... I'm wondering if there's a good camera out there that is relatively compact (we hike a lot), takes great pics, takes great HD video indoors (school events) and outdoors and will be somewhat durable. I'm willing to spend for a mid-range solution but can't find anything that's a runaway winner.

I have an old 8MP Canon Rebel (that's too big to hike with) and a older Canon G11 that I like, but neither take HD video. Am I better off just getting an HD camcorder?

Any and all suggestions are appreciated!

THANK YOU!

 

[photo1x1.com]

Hi!
At the moment I'd say Sony is the leader. While every camera has its pros and cons, for me the a6300 is awesome. If that's out of your budget, look at the a6000. I own the latter, have recommended it to three friends or relatives and they are all happy with it, using it for various things, one even being a professional youtuber with 500.000 subscribers.
I own and use a lot of cameras from canon and sony, but this one is great value for money.
The only downside for me is that the stabilizer in this camera is not as good as in other more expensive sonys, but easily as good as in canon DSLRs. Well, and another one being the rather high price you pay for sony lenses.

 

[rudimaes]

I had the Sony A6000, too. An excellent mirrorless for both stills and video.
Its successor the A6300 is even better.

 

[480sparky]

This might be expecting too much............

Yes, you are. There is no such thing as 'the best'. If there were, you wouldn't need to ask because there would only be one camera on the market.

Knowing your budget would help tremendously in answering your question. Otherwise, you'll get all sorts of suggestions for cameras you cannot afford.

 

[goodguy]

Good cameras that does good video and good pics...............
Canon 5D IV
Canon 70D or 80D
Nikon D500
Panasonic GH4 or G7 or G8

 

[Chrisco3897]

This might be expecting too much............

Yes, you are. There is no such thing as 'the best'. If there were, you wouldn't need to ask because there would only be one camera on the market.

Knowing your budget would help tremendously in answering your question. Otherwise, you'll get all sorts of suggestions for cameras you cannot afford.

Around $1,000 would be ideal.

 

[Village Idiot]

Used D750. FF, with excellent video and photo quality. It absolutely blew anything Canon out of the water when it was released. That's why I no longer own any Canon gear.

 

[chuasam]

Canon EOS 80D, Panasonic Lumix GH4, Sony A6300.
all excellent mid ranged products.

 

[Meghan Photography]

i bought canon 80d

 

[nowbout64]

For me it is Canon 600D

 

[TCampbell]

In the "durable" department, many mid-range and pro level cameras use magnesium allow (lightweight metal) bodies instead of polycarbonate (hard plastic) bodies. ALSO, many mid-range and above camera models are weather-sealed so if you get caught in the rain (as long as it's not a torrential downpour) then you're probably ok.

So that's the good news about mid-range and high-end cameras. Now the bad news... they're usually not what you'd classify as "compact" (they are not going to fit in your pocket if that's what you're hoping).

Canon and Sony can do continuous auto-focus *while* shooting video and the focus is actually pretty good (as subjects move closer or farther the camera can not only detect that they've moved, it knows exactly which way they've moved and can follow focus accurately).

Nikon supports an older flavor of continuous auto-focus. It can tell a subject moved out of focus -- but doesn't know which direction. This means it has to use 'focus hunt' to re-focus the subject (and this is noticeable in your video as you watch the camera make several guesses to focus before it finally re-locks focus.)

Canon and Sony both use phase-detection and can tell the direction of movement and PRECISELY how far the subject moved (no guessing involved) because it can measure the difference in phase and can tell the difference between a positive vs. negative phase change and how much of a phase change occurred. Canon invented a technology to imbed the focus sensors directly into the image sensor. Sony still uses separate focus sensors but they use a semi-transparent mirror so that *some* light is bounced into the focus sensors and some light is sent to the image sensor (the reflex mirror in their cameras does not move).

Canon does have versions of their auto-focus technology in some of their more compact cameras, but it's an earlier version and not as mature as you can get in their latest cameras. So for example... an 80D would be fantastic (that's a mid-range camera). A 7D II would be awesome (that's a very high-end mid-range cameras... some people would classify it as a pro-grade body.) But these are not "compact" cameras.


You might want to take a look at the new EOS M5. That's a mirrorless camera that has Canon's dual-pixel CMOS AF (so it has the continuous auto-focus in video that you want). It will be smaller than a DSLR but still uses are moveable lenses (it can use the "EOS M" series (M meaning that it's Canon's "mirrorless" series) and it can use any EOS lens with an adapter. I do not know if it has weather-sealing.

Since the M5 has no mirror, the body is considerably smaller. It also weighs quite a bit less (about 15 ounces vs. the 80D's 25 ounces -- this does include the weight of the camera body with battery installed but NOT with a lens attached (that will vary based on which lens(es) you choose.)

Speaking of lenses... if you use the built-in microphone when recording video, Canon's new "STM" series of lenses use motors which are almost completely silent when focusing. They were designed for video to provide smoother zoom operation and to be so quiet that the microphone cannot pick up the sound of the focus motors. The camera does have a separate mic-in jack so you can use a higher-quality external mic such as a Rode VideoMic.

 

[beagle100]

like others have mentioned the Canon 80D fits your budget but if you want small and lightweight look at the mirrorless options and "panckake" style lens. e.g. Canon M5, Sony, Fuji, etc.
www.flickr.com/photos/mmirrorless