laptop and camera recommendations

[tiffani]

Hi there,
we have some of our educational funding left to spend, and my son is really into creating films, mostly stop-motion. I would love to get him a laptop and camera of his own, and we have $560 to spend -- any recommendations for a laptop and camera combo that would serve his purpose for the money we have left to spend?

[AAK]

I don't know about the laptop, but for camera. . . my dd has a Flip camera. She LOVES it. She is constantly making "shorts" and other things. It has a usb built in to the camera and she just pops it in to the computer. We have a Mac, and we have decided that we prefer using iMovie with it instead of the software that comes with it. But, I have heard that the software is better for pc users. Anyways, the quality has been better than expected, the price was right $130, and it is just SO EASY to use! No tapes to buy--it is digital. It also mounts on the tripod we already had.

Amy

[moominmamma]

The FlipCam won't work for stop-motion. At least, you'd need special software. A still camera and PC with Adobe Premiere Elements has worked best for us, although you could also use a still camera with iMac with iStopMotion. There are a kazillion inexpensive still cameras out there.

Just a heads-up: the kind of laptops that will handle movie-editing easily are expensive. You need something a closer to a "gaming machine" than a netbook, because the processor and graphics card and RAM are taxed heavily by the rendering process. Inexpensive student laptops will be painfully slow. We've used a desktop PC because higher end laptops are expensive.

Miranda

[AAK]

Originally Posted by moominmamma

The FlipCam won't work for stop-motion.

I actually have no idea what stop-motion is, but my dd loves that camera so I put it out there.

So, what is "stop-motion"?

Amy

[moominmamma]

Stop-motion is stitching together still pictures to give the illusion of movement. It's very fun but requires a lot of painstaking work and patience. Often kids will use little plasticine or lego figures to create a short scene, moving them a fraction of an inch for each frame to creat the movement. I believe you can use software as simple as Windows Movie Maker to shoot stop-motion. In our experience it really helps to be able to view the camera's most recent frame on-screen, with a transparent overlay of the current scene, and that's something that programs like Adobe Premiere Elements allow you to do.

The OP said her child was interested in videos in general too. The FlipCam is a great affordable video camera. I agree that a tripod is super helpful with it, because it's so small and light and easily jiggles in the hand.

Miranda