Which Camcorder?

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evdok

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My sister called me today and wants to buy a camcorder to capture those priceless moments with her new baby daughter:bannana: her budget is around £500

Any recommendations folks?:confused:
 
sony are always a good bet... saying that ours is a panasonic, but we have always stuck to sony... when i used to work at currys i always pushed sony, just for quality..
 
I too have panasonic amazing picture but so was the price 1k, exactly what i said to her about Sony but which model is good for the price tag?
 
I've only ever had two, and both times had SONY. If it were me, and I wanted to spend £500 I would just buy the best SONY I could for £500!! Simple as that.

Bigger question is tape (cheap?), DVD (already outdated?) HDD (like garlic bread - the future?)
 
she wants HDD, I'm not too clever on that all new to me.
 
To be honest MiniDV is perfect for what you want. I've had a couple of Sony Handycams - the DCR-PC series all from eBay for about £250. Excellent quality that were £1k+ when new.

Sony DCR-PC120E

The older ones have a manual focus ring - essential for some camera work rather than a touch-screen focus.

A current eBay list here
 
A MiniDV camcorder is still a good choice, provided it has a fast digital output for transfer to the PC. We have an old-ish Sony DCR-TRV30E which is excellent, and a Panasonic (forget the model) which is OK but fairly basic.
 
All MiniDV cameras have a Firewire connection. I doubt you'll be shooting enough video to warrant MPEG-2 encoding and a USB 2.0 transfer which is the only quicker way of getting video off of a camera.

Obviously you'll need a PCI Firewire card if your PC doesn't have a socket.
 
All MiniDV cameras have a Firewire connection.

Possibly true of current models, but definitely not in the past. Many budget MiniDV camcorders had no digital output at all.
 
I've got a Canon MVX250i minidv, excellent camera.
As well as the tapes, also uses SD cards which can be inserted into computer card reader, quick & easy to save your recordings.
Also able to convert analogue camera footage to digital if you have an old camera & tapes lying around.

Russ
 
Possibly true of current models, but definitely not in the past. Many budget MiniDV camcorders had no digital output at all.

MiniDV used 1394 connectors as standard - I don't know of any that don't have them - past or otherwise :confused:.
 
knowing nothing about these cameras....is 1.55 Megapix enough? I ask because both my still cameras are way more than that (5 & 10 iirc)...or is the vid tech very different?
 
It's irrelevant for video. The DV video standard is 720x480 (NTSC) or 720x576 (PAL) - the 1.55 megapixels only benefits still images.
 
A MiniDV camcorder is still a good choice, provided it has a fast digital output for transfer to the PC. We have an old-ish Sony DCR-TRV30E which is excellent, and a Panasonic (forget the model) which is OK but fairly basic.


Digital out via firewire is in realtime. The tape is played in real time out and cannot be speeded up.
The only fast route is either hard disk, memory card or dv disc if youre prepared to use another piece of software.

You need to factor in how and what youre going to edit it with. If youre looking at High Def then theres only a couple pieces of software will easily edit it ( not counting mac software such as final cut )
YOu will see software saying that it can edit but believe me its clunky.

Ive just bought ( I buy a lot ) a toshiba SD card camera for £60 - it will do its job would not be any use for you. Ive also just bought a sony Memory stick High Def camera - its gorgeous, but then so is the price.

I would stick to tape - its cheaper and it works, although current hard drive cameras are becoming the fashion. I would then buy any good make camera. You wont be disappointed, not these days. I tend to stick to canon, but then did have to send about 15 back a couple of years ago.
I also think youre about £250 over budget.
 
MiniDV used 1394 connectors as standard - I don't know of any that don't have them - past or otherwise :confused:.

I thought some basic (low end) MiniDVs only had analog out, but I could be wrong :eek:
 
Makro have a Sony DCR SR32 ( 30 gb )
On offer....£100 off

£234 inc Vat

Joe
 

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