I posted this here, because I didn't see anything in 'electronics' or 'photography'...

I want to go pick one up today for my wife, so that we can video our little boys first Christmas, our cruise, etc....

Anyone recommend one for under $400 ? Thanks, Chris.

 

Can't go wrong with a Sony. I have a Canon and while it works just fine, it ended up breaking just outside of warranty and I had to spend close to $200 to get it fixed.

 

You're in luck:
http://cnet.search.com/search?chkpt=...%20dv&tag=srch

I would suggest a hard drive camcorder instead since tech is heading that way, but Mini DV will let you capture video to your PC without a video capture card.

 

What about this one?

Sony DCRHC26

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Sony-...oductDetail.do

 

I don't think that there is a hard drive one available in my price range...

 

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Sony-...oductDetail.do

???

 

Don't pay a premuim for it. The review's not so hot:
http://reviews.cnet.com/Sony_Handyca...-31649781.html

 

I have a panasonic mini-dv and I like it. But now I wish it was HD. When I bought it I didn't have an HDTV.

 

Mine is a Sharp mini-DV and I like it as well. A large LCD, goof battery life, and I have control of it through my laptop or desktop with just a firewire cable.
I guess I don't miss much without the hard drive. Plus I don't have HDTV, so ignorance may be bliss.

 

What would you all recommend? I basically want it for filming my 8 month old son as he grows up... plus, we are leaving for a cruise next weekend, and would like to have it for that. I am sure in a few years I will just be buying another one anyways, but... I need one now before our trip / Christmas.

I have HDTV in every room in my house, but... I am not sure why I would need it for this.

 

Samsung has NEVER let me down, through TVs,microwaves, or other tech:
http://reviews.cnet.com/JVC_GR_D350_...-31734136.html
http://reviews.cnet.com/Samsung_SC_D...-31767544.html
Buyer's guide:
http://reviews.cnet.com/Camcorders/4...ml?tag=capsule

 

I know you said your looking for a Mini DV, that's good. DO NOT get the DVD recorder type. My father in law had two of the mini cd photo cameras, they stop working under 2 years.

You can't go wrong with Sony or Canon. And you can get some pretty good deals on the web. You can look at Sony's website, they have a refurbished for sale section. I purchased a Mini DV from them earlier this year.

 

I am thinking about going and picking up that Sony minidv, along with the Canon digi cam.

 

That Sony HC26 is getting poor reviews for low light situations. Take a look at this Canon.

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-Elura-10...e=UTF8&s=photo

When I want to buy something, I always start with what I want then I go to amazon and look at it. I read what people say about the model, then I'll google search the model number and it will pull up some reviews I didn't know about. If those reviews or amazon comment aren't favorable I'll look at the next model number up.

www.epinions.com is a good guide as well. also cnet.com is good as well.

 

I think it was Sarlacc (a video expert) who recommended a Sony or Panasonic mini-DV about a year and a half ago. Just get one of these within your price range. If I remember correctly, he also said to avoid Canon for camcorders (but obviously not for cameras)

And I got a Panasonic with a 3 CCD chip, and it's served me well.

 

Hey guys. I'm looking for a small, decent camcorder under $500. I need a little schooling on what I need & don't need. What do you think of these 2 products? I've never worked with those mini DVDs - do they work just like regular DVDs, fit into your computer, etc.? I'm very new to camcorders, this'll be my first.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1142292578127

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1165610937200

Which one do you think is better & why? Any other suggestions?

 

Here's a buyer's guide:
http://reviews.cnet.com/Camcorders/4...ml?tag=capsule

I've never been big on the DVD cameras because most of what I shoot I'd want to edit and with those, aren't you just making stack after stack of coasters? I .

 

Thanks! That should help.

 

i've had 2 canon mini DVs. first i bought a ZR90. there was a problem with the lens when the weather got too hot. called them up and fixed it no problem. ended up giving it to my dad once it was fixed and picked up elura. it had a smaller form factor and widescreen. the ZR90 has a widescreen lens while w/ the elura, it had it built in. i'm a mac user, which is why i stayed with canon. sony, from experience, was too windows friendly and proprietary. went with mini DV coz the DVDs were only 30 minutes while the DV were 60 SP or 90 EP. the hard drive cameras were cool because of storage capacity but it was more windows friendly and if you want to edit, you're stuck w/ their software - again proprietary problem. they also use their own video format. so you'll have to be doing multiple conversions to get it to MPEG or whatever standard format.

also, if you will be using firewire, don't expect it to be included. while shopping i checked out many reviews online and alot of people gave low ratings to really nice cameras because it didn't come w/ a firewire cable. just go to a store and play with the display. hold each camera for a few minutes. if you're not comfortable you should move on to the next unless you'll be using a tripod. then check out the interface. if it's hard to use, move on to the next.

zooming: optical > digital. 20x is about the average of a good optical zoom nowadays

finally, separate digital camera with video camera. it's a convenience to have both in one but very expensive and you'll miss out on other features if you buy them separately.

just my

 

Now is about the time of the year when the new models start showing up. Once they do, you can get a good deal on last years model. That's what I did with the Pany I got at Circuit City.

 

Hey, thanks for all that info. I'm so new to this, it's like a different language, lol. So, what I'm gathering for a PC user such as myself, I want a Sony or similar PC friendly brand since I don't have any particular video editing software? That's going to be a learning experience for sure, so I def. want the easiest product & software to use.

Could you provide more info regarding DVD vs. mini DV vs. hard drive? I'm not really sure what to do there and I'm not familiar at all with those tiny discs - I guess those are the mini DV things?. I'll have to wait till the weekend to get more deeply into all this, and I hope to go look at some of the camcorders as well.

Optical zoom > digital zoom, good to know. I'll keep that in mind, too.

I def. don't need a camera built in. I do have an Olympus digicam, and might look for a new one in the next year or so.

It'll be interesting to see what size all these camcorders are, too. I won't get something big and clunky, as that is inconvenient to carry around. Thanks for the heads up on the firewire cable, too.

Best Buy has a bunch of camcorders on sale right now. Hopefully the sale will hold out till I can make a decision.

 

Hmm. I guess that's true, too. I didn't think about that. Hard drive is better, then?

 

mini DVs are the small tapes. they look like the Hi8 tapes but smaller. SP (standard play) gives you 60 min while EP (extended play) you'll get 90 min.

DVD-R will get you 30 min. initially this was my first choice since i thought i can "rip" the DVD-R and edit file similar to backing up a DVD but i figured it may take longer than to just capture the mini DVs. also, with the DVD-R, there's no editing needed. you can have it create a menu and chapters once you finished with a DVD. at least that's what i hear. so it's a great feature if you're the type that doesn't want to edit.

Hard drives will give you the most recording time and since you're on windows platform, the software will work. i believe the software is easy to use but it may limit you on editing features. really all depends on how detailed you want a project to be. i didn't want to be limited to the software which is why i didn't choose this. also, since i last checked out the market, the hard drives in camcorders are built in or inaccessible. if these break, you can't simply replace the hard drive yourself. they may have models w/ replaceable hard drives now, i haven't looked lately.

for the High Def cameras, only buy it if you have an HD tv

my breakdown on manufacturers i've checked out
Canon:
+ i like the interface
+ have had many Canon products in the past and all have been reliable
+ mac friendliest
+ generic parts available
+ easy to use interface
- not the best for low lighting condition
- website isn't great when looking for support

Sony
+ reliable
+ great interface (some have touchscreen)
+ more models to choose from
+ works great with other SONY products
- proprietary hardware, can get expensive (ie battery, cables)

Panasonic
+ price
- proprietary software and video format

those are brands i considered when i looked for a camcorder back in june 2006. take my opinions for what they are worth

 

Hard drive based consumer camcorders record their video in a compressed format on the hard drive. AFIK they pretty much all use the MPEG-2 video standard for this. Some of the newer models may use formats known as MPEG-4 or H.264 but what I'm about to say holds true for them as well.

MPEG-2 is the same kind of video found on standard definition DVD's so the quality can theoretically be quite good. That will likely only hold true, however, if you just copy the files off of the camcorder and never edit them.

To edit the MPEG-2 video from a hard drive based camcorder, you have to uncompress the video, work on it, and then re-compress it. Just like working on still images, the compress in camera -> uncompress for work -> recompress to save cycle can lead to a loss of image quality. Especially if you happen to go through the process more than a couple of times. Additionally, uncompressing the MPEG-2 video on your computer in order to work on it is a fairly intensive task and can be a bit time consuming in and of itself.

With miniDV cameras, you get the raw (more or less) uncompressed digital video straight out of the camera into your computer. This type of video is commonly known simply as DV. Be forewarned though, these files can be huge. Standard DV footage is about 3.6 megabytes per second. An hour's worth of raw footage will take up 13 gigabytes of hard drive space.

 

i have a dcr-sr40 and i love it, good entry level HDD one though... not a mini dv

 

Damn, this is going to be more difficult/involved than I thought! I have some thinking to do. I definitely don't know what I'm doing in regards to editing video, nor do I have the time to spend on it, so maybe that's not what I need. Just something that is easy to use, uses inexpensive media, reliable, and gives good quality video is all I need.

 

Just a quick update. I decided on a new digicam instead of a camcorder. I wanted both - camcorder soon and then upgrade my Olympus C5000 zoom in a year or so, but I think the camcorder is just more of a fun toy to have (for me anyway). I enjoy pictures/photography and want to learn more about that, so I'm putting off the camcorder for probably a couple years or until I feel that I need it. I got a Canon Rebel XT DSLR online from Circuit City - they were almost $200 cheaper than Best Buy! Can't wait for it to arrive.

Thanks for all your input on camcorders.

 

Good Choice, when you look at getting more lenses, check amazon.com. They're at least $200 cheaper than BB and CC. I was in BB yesterday, they had a lens I got from amazon from $550 for $850.

 

^^ Thanks for the tip. I'd love to get some accessories. I can't wait to start using it. My dad called dibs on my old camera - my parents don't even have a digicam yet, so they should like my old Olympus.

 

i take this back....the compression is bad on it, and low light scenes are no good...after playing around with it more, i dont think i would go with a hard drive based player until the new ones start rolling out...
after checkin out the reviews i found out it wasn't just my camera but the sony hard drive players in general.

I went ahead and got the
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Panas...oductDetail.do
to replace it. Haven't really got a chance to play with it, but it sounds more promising in terms of picture quality.

It had better reviews...
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Custo...Review.do#tabs

than the dcr-sr40 i have
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Custo...Review.do#tabs