I know, I know,


I picked up a Jazz DV153, for my kids, to take camping.

It's all auto, and stores onto an SD card.

The video quality has a look all its own, surprisingly, not to bad, for a $60.00 unit from Canadian Tire.

Not in the same league as any of the gear mentioned here, but the video has a retro look to it, with a feel not unlike some 8mm film.
With very little tweaking in an NLE, you could have some real fun with this unit.

I tested it out with an infrared filter, and wow, what a look. Holding a ND an Polarizers in front of the lens, made a difference as well, again, it all depends on the lighting.

My intenetion was to get the kids hooked on shooting video, and progressing onto editing the footage, with some help.

Anybody else want to admit to using something cheap like this, and actuallly incorporating it into some of their video.

I know of some shows on broadcast, that shoot sd widescreen, and then show some full screen content, that is supposed to mimic crappy looking film, intentionally, and it looks great.

Anybody?

Hey, "cheap" is relative, a tool is a tool, and CONTENT ultimately is the only thing that will matter in the long run.

I personally like to shoot with the best gear I can justifiably afford, but my stuff is "cheap" by comparison too... at least compared to higher end cameras.

It's great that you're getting the kids into a hobby, and even cooler that you can buy a creative "toy" that's close to a throwaway that is a usable tool!

I've seen TV commercials shot with cell phones, Skype video on multimillion dollar live shows, and some crappy videos shot by a teenager and posted on YouTube have been watched more times than prime-time TV shows.

It's all relative... content is king, tools used are of no importance.