I found this product and seems like the reviews are mostly 5/5...
I don't know too much about camcorders, is this a good buy? I'd like to get this for myself for christmas

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/cus...views.start=21

 

If you haven't already, check out reviews and comments at http://www.camcorderinfo.com/. From what I can recall, they're sort of known as the DPreview of the video world.

My only advice would be to make certain you fully realize the current playback and output limitiations of the HD capabilities you're paying for.

 

^ I actually don't know anything about the current playback and output limitations of the HD capabilities............................

 

Basically, you're paying money for the capability to capture video in the 1080i HD format. If you can't take sufficient advantage of that format to suit your personal needs, then what are you paying the extra money for?

Do you have an HDTV?

If so, then do you realize you will for the most part be bound to playing back from the camcorder in order to watch in HD?

There are competing HiDef DVD formats (HD-DVD & Blu-ray). Do your friends and family have HDTVs and have they also shelled out the big $'s for an HD-DVD or Blu-ray player? If not, then you'll never be able to send them your videos in all their HiDef glory. Sure you can downscale your video to standard 480p for them, but again this raises the question of do you really need to be spending the money for the HiDef camcorder?

Even if your key friends and family have HDTV's and a HiDef DVD player, then there's the issue of how you're going to create HiDef DVDs for them. It takes notably more computing power and storage to edit HiDef video than standard 480p video. Is your computer up to it? Even if it is, burner drives for both of the HiDef DVD formats are just trickling onto the market. Are you prepared to deal with any bugs and glitches that may come along with the first generation drives?

All that sounds like I'm trying to talk you out of the camcorder. I'm not. I just wanted to lay these things out there for your consideration. There's nothing at all wrong with just wanting to "wow" your family when they come over or one-up your buddy in a gadget war. Just buy it if that's the case. In the grand scheme of the toys discussed here and the HT forum, this really isn't an enormous investment.

 

You actually gave me some very good insights....

I've checked out the lower grade of camcorders
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_p/...mini+camcorder
and most of them have either bad reviews, or doesn't work on certain software... hence I came across the one I showed you.
I do have HDTV but I'm going use it mostly for high resolution or should I say good quality videos, I don't want to film something special and finds out later it's in shitty quality.
That camcorder is expensive... but do you personally recommend something within that price range? Or not as good but still great quality...?

thanks

 

To be honest, no, I don't really have any other recommendations in the range of what you're looking for. The only thing I would point someone to is a low end model within a "professional" MiniDV camcorder. IMO, that would be the way to go if you want the best image quality but don't need/want HD capture.

As with anything marketed "pro" though, the equipment is notably bigger and bulkier and comes with the associated bigger and bulkier price tag. The Panasonic AG-DVC30 is what I was looking at at one time. I'd guess that it can probably be had for a bit less than 2x the cost of the Sony you were looking at.