Camcorder Get

I have a friend who wants to buy a camcorder. It's not for anything big, just recording events like dogs playing, babies being born, and birthday parties and stuff like that. Price range of about $500.

I've been looking and there are just too many choices. I have no idea what would be good for her needs because, since neither of us have ever owned a camcorder before, we don't know what the needs are. Will she edit (MiniDV)? I don't know. Is the picture quality of a DVD camcorder good enough for our purposes? Don't know either.

Basically, I'm looking for the best value $500ish can buy for a camcorder for your standard uses.

I was looking at www.camcorderinfo.com, but they don't really break it down. There's no "THIS is the camera you should get".

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I'm also looking into getting a digital video camera for an upcoming trip to Japan.

However, I'm torn between just getting a cheap (sub-$200) digital camera and using the Mpeg4 video recording functions on that, or going all out and getting a 3CCD Panasonic DVD camcorder for around $500.

Sorry to hijack your thread, but I think we'll get around the same responses.

I'm looking away from MiniDV cameras mainly because they're still on tape (meaning you need to FF/Rewind to find your spot) and you need to dub it off in real time. Plus, I've had some bad experiences with MiniDV (a lot of white square artifacting popping up from time to time, audio drop-outs), since I'm a TV/Video major and I've had to use MiniDV/DVCPRO.

I wish someone would release a good-quality digital camcorder that stores to SD card, since media prices have come way down.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

eh, I dunno. a lot of the camcorders out these days record to mini-DVD as opposed to VCR. However I can't give advice on a new camcorder either, the last one I've seen was the one my dad owns which was one of those mini VCR camcorders.. needed a battery to play in a regular VCR..

they do have some all-in-one picture/video recorders that do record to SD, but quality is absolute shit, for lack of better wording.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Well, the top one I recommended was the Panasonic 3CCD MiniDV one:

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content...ons-Review.htm

And I gave her another Panasonic as a DVD recommendation:

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content...der-Review.htm

I wanted to find an Elura 100, which CamcorderInfo.com basically said was the best camera of 2006, but they are only available refurbished anymore, so I gave this as a cheap one instead:

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content...Conclusion.htm

The Sonys just seem too expensive and the Canons, while cheap, just don't seem to have the quality. It'd be nice if the budget line of camcorders were as high quality as Canon's budget digital cameras.

I dunno, there just isn't as good info on the Internet for camcorders as for cameras.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I have a Canon Optura 50 and it seems to be just what the doctor ordered. Image stabilization done in the lens (as opposed to in software, so you get better results), widescreen mode, manual focus...

Cost me in the vicinity of $500 last year, so it's probably cheaper than that now. It does use MiniDV, so if you really don't want to mess with tapes, it might not be the best idea. It is a damn nice camera, though.

I was speaking idiomatically.

All the available Optura 50s are refurbished or used also.

From the sounds of it, the big camcorder makers trimmed their lines in anticipation of HD technology being adopted quickly.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

If you want to edit, fuck the DVD/HD recorders—too much compression and it makes editing a pain (especially if you have a Mac). As long as you're using good tape stock and keep your heads clean, you shouldn't have any problems with MiniDV—just don't use LP mode. Ever.

Then again, I've never paid any attention camcorders that weren't at least prosumer level, so I don't really know much about the low price range stuff. I do know that the DVD/HD ones can be a pain though.

FELIPE NO

I gotta second that one. I'm not sure if my Optura counts as "prosumer" or not, but I've never considered anything other than MiniDV. MiniDV+Final Cut (or, hell, any other NLVE package) is a match made in heaven and the tapes are cheap enough that keeping your stock up isn't really a problem.

Besides, I'd not want to mess with anything auto-burned to an end-user-friendly format right at the start. I like having control over my own DVD bitrates, menus, layout, tracks, etc. I don't know that the DVD camcorders actually do that, but it always seemed to me to be one of those stillborn marketing ideas: "You can film little Billy's soccer game, and then put the DVD right in your player for Grandma and Grandpa to watch!"

Um, no thanks, k. I'll do my own DVDs if it's all the same to you. In fact, I'm going to do my own DVDs even if it isn't all the same to you, Sony, and you can get frelled if you don't like it.

Just two little caveats: A. Final Cut Pro doesn't like some Canon firewire ports and can actually cause a kernel panic. Set it to use "Apple NTSC Firewire Basic" if you're using a Canon DVcam to import. And B. MiniDV tapes should be treated as "write once, read many." Just because you can tape over them doesn't mean you should. I've seen what can happen, and it is ugly. Ugly like the baby in Eraserhead.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

In terms of DV camcorders in the consumer market, Panasonic's 3CCD cameras are phenomenal. I've made some killer videos with them, and when used properly, they can have as good or better picture quality than cameras that cost more (*cough* HDV cameras *cough*).

But seriously, I would recommend DV especially if you plan on going to computer through firewire. Much better than anything else.

Jam it back in, in the dark.