Camcorder or DSLR
 

I'm wanting a way to video other persons doing sports, in particular skiing, that is easy to carry, easy to use, reasonably durable, allows slow-mo, long zoom lens, adjustable exposure and white balance, makes it easy to share the video, and hopefully pretty inexpensive.

Explainer: I want to pair up with someone and videotape each other skiing, for an hour or so every couple of weeks, so we can both review video of our form.

The choices seem to be a DSLR or a camcorder.

DSLR would give me, well, a digital camera too: two birds one stone. But I'm not particularly wanting a DSLR right now. The length of lens required to get close up footage of a skiier over say a 200 meter run seems like it will be expensive and bulky. Better image quality, I'd guess. Not sure about slow-mo (120 fps).

Camcorder would be less expensive, a one-trick pony. Some have 20X zooms. Smaller ones are easy to carry, but they do get bulky as you add features. Not sure how weatherproof they are, but would probably do video'ing on bluebird days.

Thoughts? Recommendations?

DSLR is kinda old tech now with mirrorless being the current trend.

If it were me I'd find the best ski videos on YouTube and reach out to see what they use. I would tend to think action cams are more prevalent for that.

This.

One can purchase a full frame dslr for cheap.


OP. Just get a go pro.

why not an Insta 360 and film yourself from every imagined angle?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-LKPItFeu4

To clarify, I do not want first party video - i.e. don’t want video from a camera worn by the skiier. I want to get video from a third party of the skiier coming down the hill and going by. Suppose the run starts 200 m above the camera, and ends 200 m below, I want the shot zoomed so that the skiier is more or less filling the frame for most of the 400 m. Then want to be able to stuff the camera back into a fanny or chest pack, and ski to the next run and video it again.

ahh!

well that sounds like a good mechanical zoom on a mirrorless but might not be as portable as you'd expect. Key for quality video will be smooth zoom function. Lots of YouTube content on the subject as so many 'content creators' are trying for the best possible production values.

This maybe be a crazy far out idea but you could ask your questions on a forum for photography....


https://thehiveindex.com/topics/photography/

https://www.thephotoforum.com/forums/

Why? I mean if PPOT cant give a good andwer, the question probably didnt need to be asked .... ;)

PPOT is a one-stop shop. Many Holiday Inn stays here :-)