Attn: MATT: Good deal or bad deal?

[ScottWinston]

http://www.woot.com/

I eventually would like to get a nice camera, but I think even getting a $300 camera is something my wife and I could easily put off until we're ten years older so buying this right now might be a good idea. But if it totally sucks, and doesn't even work with an external Mic, then we'll probably pass.

What do you think?

[Mr. Films]

looks good to me. these days cameras like that are so mass-produced that you don't have to worry about little problems or differences in brands like back in 01-03 era when cameras like that were finally entering the home market.

[Mr. Films]

I'm assuming you just want it for home movie type stuff right?

if so, I'd say do it.

[ScottWinston]

Thanks for the input. I actually ended up not getting the camera through sheer indecisiveness, though sometimes I wish I did. I heard some bad things about it though, and it made me kind of want to look at a more expensive camera- which then made me not want to get a camera at all.

It's frustrating to think ten years ago, I could record video and then transfer it to my PC, but now, its impossible to do any of that. And the real problem is, even though stuff gets cheaper, they always purposely fuck it up so you have to buy something thats not super expensive but not comfortably cheap either. Its complete bullshit because by now the only thing a camera that price shouldn't have is a decent lens.

Although I don't know anything about this stuff anymore so who am I to say.

[Musica42]

Tim,

I wound up getting a camcorder that stores everything on flash memory. Personally, it's the easiest to use camcorder ever because:

A. I don't have to dick around with tapes
B. Getting whatever I shot on the computer is as simple as transferring from flash memory

[ScottWinston]

The only issue I'd see with that is not being able to transfer videos back because you're on a trip and away from a computer. That and video is pretty spacey even on computers.

I kind of wish I'd bought it, now. Oh well.

[Musica42]

To counter your first argument, SD Memory cards are dirt cheap and despite my best efforts to overtax my camcorder I inevitably run out of stuff to shoot or battery before I run out of room on my memory card. I've got a couple 8 GB'ers and that's enough for the general home movie crap that I do. I'm just not a "prosumer" when it comes to video and I tend to take short bursts of footage because I've learned that if I shoot any more I tend to piss off everybody around me and also wind up fast forwarding through the majority of it when I'm rewatching it. The result is I go months in between dumping my flash cards.

Space really shouldn't be a big consideration either considering how cheap external hard drives are or even DVD backup or something like Carbonite.com or whatever. Then again, I have no idea what kinds of things you'd be planning on filming but...well, whatever. I've gotta get my ass to bed.

[ScottWinston]

I accept your counter argument!

By the way, corporate loyalty obliges me to mention that if you're going to back your stuff up to the cloud, you should look into using Jungle Disk- a desktop app which incorporates Rackspace Cloud Files.

[Musica42]

*blinks confusedly*

Did...

Did I just successfully make a counter argument against Tim?

Holy shit. Win!

[ScottWinston]

Geeze, I'm going to have to stop listening to you if you're going to always gloat about it.

Btw, when do I ever argue when it comes to a topic I don't regularly study? About a decade ago, I knew more about video transferring equipment than Matt or you, and yet here I am easily excepting what you have to say! If you worked with other programmers all day long (especially ones who similarly had known a lot during the 90's and had since learned little new) you'd recognize that as rare talent.

[Musica42]

Awwww, literal Tim! Do I really have to insert "j/k" at the end of my e-mails?

[ScottWinston]

Yes! Or winking emoticons.

[Musica42]

What can I say, 99% of my (read: feeble) humor here comes from the following three concepts:

1. Paul is HIV thin
2. Seth is just one good sneeze from being a homosexual
3. Tim argues like a Jewish mother with a law degree

My humor is juvenile and mean-spirited, but as with everything I say it comes from a place of love.*


*everything except my loudly cursing God whenever my GPS device tumbles into my lap while driving. I understand God really has nothing to do with this happening, but yelling at Garmin at the top of my lungs isn't nearly as satisfying as taking my lord's name in vain.**

**There I go again thinking edgy humor = I'm funny and instantly likable. Someone should really consider sneaking over here and cutting my brakes tomorrow. j/k

I'm going to bed and hopefully waking up in a good mood for once this week.

[ScottWinston]

I think arguing anymore that I don't argue would be so ironic as to perhaps create a hole in space time that would destroy the universe.

I'm glad that I can relate to you as far as cursing God goes. I thought I was the only one! I do it all the time, like yesterday for example, when I kept going "why does God hate me to deny me Punch-Out!!?" Or today, when I came back from the store and couldn't find a particular item, I raged to the heavens "WHY?! WHY DO YOU DENY ME THE ONE ITEM I HAVE SPENT SO MUCH TROUBLE TO OBTAIN!"

So basically I'm materialistic, shallow and prone to sacrilegious demonstrations.

[Musica42]

Well said, Tim. Well said.

I just had another one of those moments. There's a forum at jwfan.com, a John Williams fansite, that has a number of people with collections of various film composers' hand written scores and manuscripts. They have among other things such coveted items as the complete written score to John Williams' Hook, Jurassic Park, and excerpts from his Star Wars scores. One guy is willing to trade for copies of such items and I have plenty of stuff to offer him, but after registering for the forum I've found myself locked out from posting, replying, or sending PM's. Apparently there's some sort of verification process I must first wait for. Of course I didn't discover this fact until I had first composed a lengthy message to one of these people presenting my offer for copies of his items.

If you're there God, I'm sorry I said those things about your mother.