Webcams are more convenient and sometimes the quality is pretty good. You can't zoom with most webcams though, which is a downside if you don't want the whole film to look like it was shot on one, wideish lens.

You never need more than like 8 megapixels anyway, because you're probably planning to make your videos at a resolution no higher than 1080p. With a DSLR you will need a lens that can focus very close for the LEGO scale, or diopter filters to focus closer on a normal lens, but diopters make the depth of field more shallow.

Personally, I prefer shooting with a compact, fixed-lens digital camera. I've used a Canon A620 for most of my films; a Canon A-series powershot camera might suit your needs if you can find one that works with your stop motion software of choice. The quality's better than a webcam, but the camera isn't as bulky and they mostly include macro-focusing features.

DSLR's have other advantages besides very high image quality. One of the more subtle ones is better dynamic color range. You can also adjust the lighting of your shot much more exactly, so on and so forth, there are a lot of benefits. I must say though, I've never used anything other than a DSLR, so I don't know much about other cameras. Also, since you're using your sisters camera I must warn you, SLR's have a finite life, the shutter mechanism will eventually die out, so by using her camera for animation (which involves taking tons of pictures, if you hadn't noticed), you are speeding up her camera's journey to inevitable death; something to keep in mind.

Youtube Channel

Yes, though cameras with >3 Megapixels tend to have very poor optics and coloring. I was unaware that webcams were unable to zoom, so I may look into getting a small camera with decent quality that is compatible with my frame-capture software

Anything else that I should be aware of?

do you know what capture software supports canon powershots with windows 7? because when I was looking at stop motion pro, it said that it only supported canon powershots on windows xp and free ware does not seem to support it or I can't find the answers. The only other software  I could think of is dragonframe but that is way out of my budget

YOUTUBE TWITTER

some of them do and some of them don't you would have to check the specifications, however apparently some lose their manual focus when on remote capture

YOUTUBE TWITTER

Theoretically true, but in practice it's usually better to have something that captures more and resolves down to 1080p because a 3 megapixel camera will generally produce a softer image at 1080p than an 8 megapixel camera. The exception would be if it's a camera built specifically for resolving to video resolutions, like the Blackmagic Cinema Camera.

The other thing I like is being able to crop and zoom a little bit digitally in post, which a high resolution enables you to do.

I'm confused, webcams such as the c920 allow use of zoom features I've used it and works fine, or am I missing something?

Oh ok, thats understandable, nice hearing from you again.

Last edited by Generalned (January 8, 2013 (01:15pm))