Brand New In Church Video Ministry-Newnan, Georgia at DVinfo.net

Bob Williams · January 9th, 2013, 04:02 PM

Hello all,

I am more than excited to be here. This is a great forum and I've already gotten wonderful assistance from member regarding our church use of (2) Canon GL-2 video cameras. I understand these cameras were produced back in 2009 and are not being made anymore. Based on what I've seen they produce excellent video but it's all on tape and not like the newer camera technology being made today. Eventually our church will have to either trade our cameras or sell them outright for newer stuff. Thanks for permitting my entry here.

bob

Chris Tangey · April 4th, 2013, 08:27 AM

Welcome Bob, yes you will really need get rid of that tape!

Frank Maxwell · April 4th, 2013, 04:59 PM

Hi Bob.
Welcome to the forum. So you are using tape. If they do the job and give good results carry on. I still use tape for my productions and cant afford to keep up in this technology race. Unless they give up the ghost.

Jeff Pulera · April 5th, 2013, 09:39 AM

Hi Bob,

Ditto on using tape - if it suits your needs keep going. Memory cards are not necessarily "all that". With DV tapes, which are about $2 each, you can store them for years! Memory cards need to be transferred to a hard drive. Now, you had better backup that hard drive immediately because if there is a failure, your data is GONE forever! So rather than having some tapes on the shelf, you are into the world of "media management and archiving". And hard drives are not good long term storage, as you need to backup data to another drive every couple of years, since the magnetics fade/drives fail. I recently bought a hard drive dock so I could go through a bunch of drives on the shelf from years past, and some of them could no longer be read or acted flaky!! Was lucky to salvage what files I could.

Not knocking the new cameras, would LOVE to upgrade if finances allowed, but nothing wrong with tape cameras.

Welcome to the forum

Thanks

Bob Williams · April 5th, 2013, 06:06 PM

Hello All and thank you so much for your responses. What a great team of folk who are experts at this area. So far, my pastor does not plan to change the present church camera setup. As much usage as these cameras get they still all seem to work well and the tape transports continue to function. Thanks again for all comments and suggestions.

Bob

Frank Maxwell · April 12th, 2013, 02:00 PM

Bob, what software are you using to edit your tapes?

Serge Petchenyi · April 26th, 2013, 11:59 AM

Hi Bob, I'd also suggest ( not knowing how you capture) to get a cheaper mini-dv camcorder solely for capture. Since you are not upgrading anytime soon, this should help with having your GL2's last longer.

Bob Williams · April 29th, 2013, 06:59 AM

Good morning all,

Sorry it has taken me a while to get back to everyone. First of all, I very much appreciate all the help forum members have provided. Every suggestion and all advice is more than welcomed. I will be suggesting the church consider a less expensive camera alternative. We can't get rid of the tape system because of the financial commitment. We are a growing church. Frank and Jeff you know what I'm talking about. We cannot afford to make that move right now. We have three (3) working cameras and they are still holding up well. One of the problems I've heard about these cameras has to do with the tape drawer malfunctioning. So far God has blessed.

I am going to try and use "Cyberlinks Power Director Ultimate" software to capture and prepare videos for TV. I've just got to learn how to use it properly. If there is anything else I should consider please everyone chime in. At 75 years old I am still more than looking forward to learning new stuff. God has blessed me with a very fertile mind even at this age and I am so thankful. So, any additional help or suggestions will be more than welcomed. I very much appreciate you all taking of your precious time to help.

Bob

Kevin Duffey · April 30th, 2013, 03:48 PM

Bob,

First of all, I LOVE that you are 75 and doing this and looking to learn more! That is so awesome! I hope to be doing this sort of stuff until the day I die!

As others said, if the cameras work, using tape is fine. I am curious, do they have HDMI output on those or were those before cameras carried HDMI? An option if they do have it is to grab some affordable HDMI recorders.. but the costs for the media may not make it worth it. The benefit of course is your cameras may be plenty good video wise, but like you suggested a malfunctioning tape system, or perhaps you want to move to tapeless for faster editing (after all, don't have to acquire the footage off the camera in realtime). The Shuttle 2 is a fantastic HDMI recorder for $350, but uses SSD drives. You can record to DNxHD 220 and get about 2 hours give or take of HDMI recordings on a $200 or so 256GB SSD. I am not sure if you record for more than 2 hours at a time, but of course with 3 cams, you'd need 3 sets of these if you were to go full tapeless.

Another alternative, is using a DSLR with HDMI out. However, I would maybe suggest selling the GL2s to afford the cameras if you were going to go that route. DSLR's aren't the best for long durations of video (unless you're using the HDMI out method). I am sure others will have better cameras for you to use for the purpose, although with a DSLR you can take some nice photos as well.

What are you doing for audio? Do you have multiple mics in the church wired in to the inputs of the cameras, or recording that separately?

Anyway, again, happy to see you doing what you're doing at your age. Keep it up!

Bob Williams · April 30th, 2013, 06:39 PM

Good evening Kevin and thank you so much for providing this support. God has blessed me. I have a few more pains but a mind as sharp as a brand new razor (smile). My pastor keeps his messages to one hour. He may go 5 minutes over, but that only happens once in a while. He wants church members to go out and enjoy the rest of Sunday. I do believe the cameras have HDMI outputs, however, I will need to check this out to be certain. As I've stated earlier, I am just learning this very interesting art form. I want to know as much as you all will teach me. I will be back in touch sir. You all have a blessed evening.

Bob

Don Bloom · April 30th, 2013, 08:32 PM

Bob,
Since you're using Canon GL-2's I can tell you that they don't have HDMI connections. They will have component or RCA connection s and maybe an S video out. You could use the firewire connection but honestly I would just use the RCA connections. Send them to a switcher, be it a videonics, datavision or whatever you have or are going to buy, throw that to the projector and be done with it.
Now having said that if you are looking to future proof your gear you'll spend more and get a switcher and projector system that had HDMI or HD-SD/sdi in-out connections as well as audio out of course to send to some sort of master AV recorder or computer.
Heh, at 66 I feel like a kid! A broken down kid but still ;-)

Kevin Duffey · May 1st, 2013, 03:26 PM

Don, thanks for the info. I wasn't sure myself (probably could have looked it up).

Bob, are you recording live such that you're using the cameras to video and put it up on a projector immediately? Or are you recording, then doing some editing perhaps and putting it out to a DVD or something? I was under the impression that you're using the cameras to record to DV tape, then doing something with that video after. Without HDMI out, then what Don said I think makes sense, although I would argue in favor of using the firewire to get the best quality you can off the tapes and capture it using Cineform or some other intermediate format, which you can then edit and/or render out to different compressed formats as needed.

Too bad it doesn't have HDMI.. those are nice cameras! I imagine the quality is still very good even if it's SD!

January 9th, 2013, 04:02 PM	#1
Bob Williams Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Atlanta Georgia Area Posts: 31	Brand New In Church Video Ministry-Newnan, Georgia Hello all, I am more than excited to be here. This is a great forum and I've already gotten wonderful assistance from member regarding our church use of (2) Canon GL-2 video cameras. I understand these cameras were produced back in 2009 and are not being made anymore. Based on what I've seen they produce excellent video but it's all on tape and not like the newer camera technology being made today. Eventually our church will have to either trade our cameras or sell them outright for newer stuff. Thanks for permitting my entry here. bob

April 4th, 2013, 08:27 AM	#2
Chris Tangey Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Alice Springs AU Posts: 187	Re: Brand New In Church Video Ministry-Newnan, Georgia Welcome Bob, yes you will really need get rid of that tape! __________________ https://vimeo.com/showcase/6068834 https://vimeo.com/286337121 http://vimeo.com/alicespringsfilmtv/skyfire

April 4th, 2013, 04:59 PM	#3
Frank Maxwell New Boot Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Trowbridge,England Posts: 11	Re: Brand New In Church Video Ministry-Newnan, Georgia Hi Bob. Welcome to the forum. So you are using tape. If they do the job and give good results carry on. I still use tape for my productions and cant afford to keep up in this technology race. Unless they give up the ghost.

April 5th, 2013, 09:39 AM	#4
Jeff Pulera Major Player Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Milwaukee WI Posts: 691	Re: Brand New In Church Video Ministry-Newnan, Georgia Hi Bob, Ditto on using tape - if it suits your needs keep going. Memory cards are not necessarily "all that". With DV tapes, which are about $2 each, you can store them for years! Memory cards need to be transferred to a hard drive. Now, you had better backup that hard drive immediately because if there is a failure, your data is GONE forever! So rather than having some tapes on the shelf, you are into the world of "media management and archiving". And hard drives are not good long term storage, as you need to backup data to another drive every couple of years, since the magnetics fade/drives fail. I recently bought a hard drive dock so I could go through a bunch of drives on the shelf from years past, and some of them could no longer be read or acted flaky!! Was lucky to salvage what files I could. Not knocking the new cameras, would LOVE to upgrade if finances allowed, but nothing wrong with tape cameras. Welcome to the forum Thanks __________________ Jeff Pulera Safe Harbor Computers

April 5th, 2013, 06:06 PM	#5
Bob Williams Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Atlanta Georgia Area Posts: 31	Re: Brand New In Church Video Ministry-Newnan, Georgia Hello All and thank you so much for your responses. What a great team of folk who are experts at this area. So far, my pastor does not plan to change the present church camera setup. As much usage as these cameras get they still all seem to work well and the tape transports continue to function. Thanks again for all comments and suggestions. Bob

April 12th, 2013, 02:00 PM	#6
Frank Maxwell New Boot Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Trowbridge,England Posts: 11	Re: Brand New In Church Video Ministry-Newnan, Georgia Bob, what software are you using to edit your tapes?

April 26th, 2013, 11:59 AM	#7
Serge Petchenyi Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Upstate NY Posts: 34	Re: Brand New In Church Video Ministry-Newnan, Georgia Hi Bob, I'd also suggest ( not knowing how you capture) to get a cheaper mini-dv camcorder solely for capture. Since you are not upgrading anytime soon, this should help with having your GL2's last longer.

April 29th, 2013, 06:59 AM	#8
Bob Williams Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Atlanta Georgia Area Posts: 31	Re: Brand New In Church Video Ministry-Newnan, Georgia Good morning all, Sorry it has taken me a while to get back to everyone. First of all, I very much appreciate all the help forum members have provided. Every suggestion and all advice is more than welcomed. I will be suggesting the church consider a less expensive camera alternative. We can't get rid of the tape system because of the financial commitment. We are a growing church. Frank and Jeff you know what I'm talking about. We cannot afford to make that move right now. We have three (3) working cameras and they are still holding up well. One of the problems I've heard about these cameras has to do with the tape drawer malfunctioning. So far God has blessed. I am going to try and use "Cyberlinks Power Director Ultimate" software to capture and prepare videos for TV. I've just got to learn how to use it properly. If there is anything else I should consider please everyone chime in. At 75 years old I am still more than looking forward to learning new stuff. God has blessed me with a very fertile mind even at this age and I am so thankful. So, any additional help or suggestions will be more than welcomed. I very much appreciate you all taking of your precious time to help. Bob

April 30th, 2013, 03:48 PM	#9
Kevin Duffey Major Player Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: California Posts: 206	Re: Brand New In Church Video Ministry-Newnan, Georgia Bob, First of all, I LOVE that you are 75 and doing this and looking to learn more! That is so awesome! I hope to be doing this sort of stuff until the day I die! As others said, if the cameras work, using tape is fine. I am curious, do they have HDMI output on those or were those before cameras carried HDMI? An option if they do have it is to grab some affordable HDMI recorders.. but the costs for the media may not make it worth it. The benefit of course is your cameras may be plenty good video wise, but like you suggested a malfunctioning tape system, or perhaps you want to move to tapeless for faster editing (after all, don't have to acquire the footage off the camera in realtime). The Shuttle 2 is a fantastic HDMI recorder for $350, but uses SSD drives. You can record to DNxHD 220 and get about 2 hours give or take of HDMI recordings on a $200 or so 256GB SSD. I am not sure if you record for more than 2 hours at a time, but of course with 3 cams, you'd need 3 sets of these if you were to go full tapeless. Another alternative, is using a DSLR with HDMI out. However, I would maybe suggest selling the GL2s to afford the cameras if you were going to go that route. DSLR's aren't the best for long durations of video (unless you're using the HDMI out method). I am sure others will have better cameras for you to use for the purpose, although with a DSLR you can take some nice photos as well. What are you doing for audio? Do you have multiple mics in the church wired in to the inputs of the cameras, or recording that separately? Anyway, again, happy to see you doing what you're doing at your age. Keep it up!

April 30th, 2013, 06:39 PM	#10
Bob Williams Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Atlanta Georgia Area Posts: 31	Re: Brand New In Church Video Ministry-Newnan, Georgia Good evening Kevin and thank you so much for providing this support. God has blessed me. I have a few more pains but a mind as sharp as a brand new razor (smile). My pastor keeps his messages to one hour. He may go 5 minutes over, but that only happens once in a while. He wants church members to go out and enjoy the rest of Sunday. I do believe the cameras have HDMI outputs, however, I will need to check this out to be certain. As I've stated earlier, I am just learning this very interesting art form. I want to know as much as you all will teach me. I will be back in touch sir. You all have a blessed evening. Bob

April 30th, 2013, 08:32 PM	#11
Don Bloom Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,609	Re: Brand New In Church Video Ministry-Newnan, Georgia Bob, Since you're using Canon GL-2's I can tell you that they don't have HDMI connections. They will have component or RCA connection s and maybe an S video out. You could use the firewire connection but honestly I would just use the RCA connections. Send them to a switcher, be it a videonics, datavision or whatever you have or are going to buy, throw that to the projector and be done with it. Now having said that if you are looking to future proof your gear you'll spend more and get a switcher and projector system that had HDMI or HD-SD/sdi in-out connections as well as audio out of course to send to some sort of master AV recorder or computer. Heh, at 66 I feel like a kid! A broken down kid but still ;-) __________________ What do I know? I'm just a video-O-grafer. Don

May 1st, 2013, 03:26 PM	#12
Kevin Duffey Major Player Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: California Posts: 206	Re: Brand New In Church Video Ministry-Newnan, Georgia Don, thanks for the info. I wasn't sure myself (probably could have looked it up). Bob, are you recording live such that you're using the cameras to video and put it up on a projector immediately? Or are you recording, then doing some editing perhaps and putting it out to a DVD or something? I was under the impression that you're using the cameras to record to DV tape, then doing something with that video after. Without HDMI out, then what Don said I think makes sense, although I would argue in favor of using the firewire to get the best quality you can off the tapes and capture it using Cineform or some other intermediate format, which you can then edit and/or render out to different compressed formats as needed. Too bad it doesn't have HDMI.. those are nice cameras! I imagine the quality is still very good even if it's SD!