New family member incoming! Need a hand picking cameras

Trekimann · November 21, 2020

Hello!

Cutting right to the point, we have a new member of the family incoming in July (anyone reading this knows more than most of our family!) and I would like to get some good camera options for capturing the next few years.

In the past I have had a Nikon D40x which gave me lovely stills but could not give me video. I sold that and replaced it with a Lumix DC-FZ82 because of the great zoom (I needed it because I went to go see the Falcon Heavy Launch last year and the result came out pretty good!) but the stills are not sharp.

My wish-list is something that can take nice sharp stills, High quality video (4k@60 would be nice, high speed options are good too) is fairly compact, can get a decent magnification on a smallish lens and will be good to last 5+years. I am fully aware that getting the same range as the Lumix (20-1200) is not really doable on a DSLR but being able to get up close is useful. Budget wise it would be nice to get body and lens if its a dslr for under £1000. No problems with a different compact camera if that option would be better. Lower the price better as I foresee many new expenses coming up!

In a similar vein I would like to pick up an action camera for the more unique future proofing of VR. I have a Sony FDR-X1000v which I have used since its release and its treated me well. But I have this VR bee in my bonnet and would like to get something that can do 360, 180VR or 360VR recording. I have come up with a workflow which lets me convert the wide angle footage from the Sony into 180mono VR footage (make my wedding video really immersive) but stereo would obviously be better. I have been using Cardboard Camera on my android phones for years and it means I now have a nice collection of stereo panoramas that I can take in while wearing my headset and being able to add some video content to that would be ideal.

My phone is good enough for now to fill in the bits in-between.

I hope you can help!

LaFemmeEnVert · November 21, 2020

7 hours ago, Trekimann said:

Hello!

Cutting right to the point, we have a new member of the family incoming in July (anyone reading this knows more than most of our family!) and I would like to get some good camera options for capturing the next few years.

In the past I have had a Nikon D40x which gave me lovely stills but could not give me video. I sold that and replaced it with a Lumix DC-FZ82 because of the great zoom (I needed it because I went to go see the Falcon Heavy Launch last year and the result came out pretty good!) but the stills are not sharp.

My wish-list is something that can take nice sharp stills, High quality video (4k@60 would be nice, high speed options are good too) is fairly compact, can get a decent magnification on a smallish lens and will be good to last 5+years. I am fully aware that getting the same range as the Lumix (20-1200) is not really doable on a DSLR but being able to get up close is useful. Budget wise it would be nice to get body and lens if its a dslr for under £1000. No problems with a different compact camera if that option would be better. Lower the price better as I foresee many new expenses coming up!

In a similar vein I would like to pick up an action camera for the more unique future proofing of VR. I have a Sony FDR-X1000v which I have used since its release and its treated me well. But I have this VR bee in my bonnet and would like to get something that can do 360, 180VR or 360VR recording. I have come up with a workflow which lets me convert the wide angle footage from the Sony into 180mono VR footage (make my wedding video really immersive) but stereo would obviously be better. I have been using Cardboard Camera on my android phones for years and it means I now have a nice collection of stereo panoramas that I can take in while wearing my headset and being able to add some video content to that would be ideal.

My phone is good enough for now to fill in the bits in-between.

I hope you can help!

Any dslr mirrorless you can afford or soperzoom or compact. Look at all the options that max out the budget just under 1000.00.

GoPro Max for the 360 camera?