Before we go, please help me pick out a new camcorder.

[squirrel]

I'm still looking for the perfect one for me. I want to have both a Hard Drive and a memory card.

 

[beglluvr]

We're looking for one as well, but the main thing we are concerned about is that it does well in low light... of course, we want clear video in ideal light, but we record in the school gym and want to get a good vdeo of Fantasmic!

Anybody have a suggestion of one that does well in these conditions?

 

[ont/ohana]

The FS guy also told us the hard drive camcorders have about a 30% failure rate on the hard drive. .

My friend owns a camera store and he said to stay away fron the hard drive camcorders. The failure rate is at least 30%, after the warranty is expired it is more money to have them fixed than they are worth. Our camcorder uses SDHC cards and works great.
Nice choice

 

[two*little*birds]

I'm still looking for the perfect one for me. I want to have both a Hard Drive and a memory card.

Me too, and one that plays back nicely (good picture quality) on HD TV's.

 

[MikeyNS]

Looks like Apple is building a video camera into every Nano now to compete with the Flip. Definitely something to consider!

 

[two*little*birds]

Thinking of buying this one...

http://www.sears.ca/gp/product/B002...38?ie=UTF8&searsBrand=core&mqnodeid=397188011

Sale ends today... should I?

 

[Tiger926]

Thinking of buying this one...

http://www.sears.ca/gp/product/B002...38?ie=UTF8&searsBrand=core&mqnodeid=397188011

Sale ends today... should I?

We just bought this camera 2 weeks ago and love it! We have had Sony camcorders before (I find Sony camcorders are very good), and we just returned the Sony HD Flip as it was too small and no zoom. This camera has an amazing zoom feature, is very compact, built in memory and quite a sturdy camera. I got the red one as well at Staples for $297.00 plus my teacher discount. That is a good price at Sears!

Good luck in your decision - we are very happy with this camera. Good images, great sound and an awesome zoom. It fits our needs of taping kids just fine, and we will try it out next summer at WDW, and I'm sure it's going to be great!

Happy shopping, Tiger

 

[two*little*birds]

Thanks Tiger... you made my decision all that easier.

Now I just have to decide between red or blue?

BTW, the memory card... do you have to buy a Sony one? Or can it be another brand?

 

[Tiger926]

Thanks Tiger... you made my decision all that easier.

Now I just have to decide between red or blue?

BTW, the memory card... do you have to buy a Sony one? Or can it be another brand?

You are welcome! I hope you like it.

You need to buy Memory Stick memory, but it doesn't have to be Sony. We did buy the new Sony Memory Stick HG Duo? as it's faster. We bought an 8gb card, and will buy more when necessary. This is our first foray into Memory Sticks as our 3 digital cameras take SD cards, so we kind of like that as now the memory will only be used for video.

Happy shopping, Tiger

 

[Ham Ham]

A friend of mine works in TV in Montreal. His role is to take shows pitched to the production company, take the field tapes and give it a look. The shows use these Kodak cameras as 2nd an third cameras while shooting.
I've seen the finished product that these tiny and inexpensive cameras produce and it it quite impressive.

Take a look

They use the HD 1080P cameras.

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=13061&pq-locale=en_US&_requestid=7890

 

[roberta]

Keep it coming.

 

[beavdisfan]

no point in going inexpensive. do you want to trust your Dis memories to a $200.00 wonder when a bit more money will get much better results.
JVC Everio is the best on the street. simple to use great program and amazing results.
i have the 120 gig unit and love it. my wife and kids use it with ease in fact my daughter just bought one.
it's small and lite and the battery just keeps on going.
it also takes great still shots.
just one great camera

 

[squirrel]

I was leaning towards the JVC Everio with the 60 GB Hard drive but I noticed quite a few reviews saying the battery only last an hour. Did you buy a larger battery? If so how much more was it?

I was trying to find one that takes SD memory cards or SDHC memory cards as I have a lot of them for my Canon camera and could easily just use some of them for each. If anyone knows of a camcorder that takes the same memory cards please let me know.

I think I'm going to go to Future Shop and see what is available and ask some questions.

The main purpose of this camcorder is to get good video of Fantasmic.

 

[Tiger926]

no point in going inexpensive. do you want to trust your Dis memories to a $200.00 wonder when a bit more money will get much better results.
JVC Everio is the best on the street. simple to use great program and amazing results.
i have the 120 gig unit and love it. my wife and kids use it with ease in fact my daughter just bought one.
it's small and lite and the battery just keeps on going.
it also takes great still shots.
just one great camera

This is a silly line of thinking, IMHO. Price is only a small part in the whole buying proces. Hard drive cameras can be way more expensive because of so many moveable parts, and not necessarily because they are better. Hard disk drive cameras although great for storing lots of video, break more easily (do an Internet search, talk to stores and talk to customers) and you'll see this), or, have the potential to break more easily. If your camera needs repair, you are looking at some serious repair cash to fix it, not to mention you have no camera for the entire length of time it needs to be repaired. Most people I would think would buy a new camera, in this case. If you get a combination camera though, then you at least have some leeway should the drive fail. Not sure which exact model of Everio 120gb camera you bought, but when we did our comparisons, the price of the new Sony that I bought is actually more than the Everio, but you need to compare zoom, lens quality and other features for the price. You can get a pretty good camera for between $250-$350 range - your $200.00 comment might have been in reference to the new flip cameras? Which I will agree, aren't that great as they don't have zoom features, and so for us with mostly taping kids and Disney World, this is a much. Our new Sony is only a bit bigger than the Sony Flip we originally purchased, and so it is a great size.

We saw the Everio and didn't care for it as much, and much research will tell you that the battery does not last long at all, as that hard drive requires major juice, so you have to buy another battery, or, suffer with the one it comes with and risk losing out on video.

Your other point about still shots is not that valid either - most of us amateur photographers know that the best stills come from a dedicated digital camera. Again, the more tricks and feautures you have, the more risk of breakage, as far as we are concerned. It's a great feature to have for convenience, but again, I would not use this as the sole determining factor of whether to buy a camcorder - you are buying a camcorder, and not a digital camera.

I am a major researcher, being that I'm a teacher, so we not only researched, but tried cameras out at stores, took one home to try, as well as with friends, not to mention major store and Internet research. The prices are great right now on all cameras (even disk drive cameras have come way down, but we don't find value in them), and you can get a seriously nice camera, like our new Sony, as mentioned above, for a great price. We didn't go the HD route, even though we have a sweet Samsung Plasma TV at home, because there are still some software issues. We have 2 very fast, media computers with tons of memory (several portable vaults and memories) and they can more than handle HD video, but we opted not at this time. We wanted simple in terms of the whole capturing and editing video, so we went with the Sony, which by the way, also has built in memory.

There are many variables to consider when purchasing cameras, and price as far as I'm concerned, is one of many, and should not be used as the sole determining factor.

Tiger

 

[squirrel]

I just bought the Panasonic SDRH80 in blue at Future Shop.

Did anyone purchase the extended warrenty? I wasn't sure if I should get it or not. I did end up getting the 4 yr plan at FS and with the other deals (free bag and lower price on the camcorder) it ended up costing $109.99 for the extra warrenty.

Should I take it back and get rid of the extended warrenty? The only thing I have had break was my iBook's DVD drive and that was covered as I did buy the warrenty.

 

[beavdisfan]

i have been in the electronics game for 20+ years and to a degree you are right in that price is not always the best gage of quality BUT there is no way a 200.00 camera or a camera that uses tape or disk will show the same quality as a hard drive.
as for breaking, if you take any amount of care with the thing it will not break meaning repair cost does not matter.
the point i was making about the still shots was that this video camera does take a fairly good still. NO video camera will be as good as a still camera for a still shot. i have a casio exlim for the stills and i love it as well. my doughter has a panasonic twice the price of the casio and takes no better stills.

i was aiming my comments at the flip cameras, i would not buy one for any reason.
our next visit to the mouse is feb and i intend to use both camers quite happily

This is a silly line of thinking, IMHO. Price is only a small part in the whole buying proces. Hard drive cameras can be way more expensive because of so many moveable parts, and not necessarily because they are better. Hard disk drive cameras although great for storing lots of video, break more easily (do an Internet search, talk to stores and talk to customers) and you'll see this), or, have the potential to break more easily. If your camera needs repair, you are looking at some serious repair cash to fix it, not to mention you have no camera for the entire length of time it needs to be repaired. Most people I would think would buy a new camera, in this case. If you get a combination camera though, then you at least have some leeway should the drive fail. Not sure which exact model of Everio 120gb camera you bought, but when we did our comparisons, the price of the new Sony that I bought is actually more than the Everio, but you need to compare zoom, lens quality and other features for the price. You can get a pretty good camera for between $250-$350 range - your $200.00 comment might have been in reference to the new flip cameras? Which I will agree, aren't that great as they don't have zoom features, and so for us with mostly taping kids and Disney World, this is a much. Our new Sony is only a bit bigger than the Sony Flip we originally purchased, and so it is a great size.

We saw the Everio and didn't care for it as much, and much research will tell you that the battery does not last long at all, as that hard drive requires major juice, so you have to buy another battery, or, suffer with the one it comes with and risk losing out on video.

Your other point about still shots is not that valid either - most of us amateur photographers know that the best stills come from a dedicated digital camera. Again, the more tricks and feautures you have, the more risk of breakage, as far as we are concerned. It's a great feature to have for convenience, but again, I would not use this as the sole determining factor of whether to buy a camcorder - you are buying a camcorder, and not a digital camera.

I am a major researcher, being that I'm a teacher, so we not only researched, but tried cameras out at stores, took one home to try, as well as with friends, not to mention major store and Internet research. The prices are great right now on all cameras (even disk drive cameras have come way down, but we don't find value in them), and you can get a seriously nice camera, like our new Sony, as mentioned above, for a great price. We didn't go the HD route, even though we have a sweet Samsung Plasma TV at home, because there are still some software issues. We have 2 very fast, media computers with tons of memory (several portable vaults and memories) and they can more than handle HD video, but we opted not at this time. We wanted simple in terms of the whole capturing and editing video, so we went with the Sony, which by the way, also has built in memory.

There are many variables to consider when purchasing cameras, and price as far as I'm concerned, is one of many, and should not be used as the sole determining factor.

Tiger

 

[beavdisfan]

the stock bettery in my everio is good for just less than two hours.
i did buy a second high capacity battery on ebay for about $15.00.
i have never run out of power.... yet but who knows,
as for the sd cards i use a standard 2g card. i also travel with a laptop so the everio is emptied of video and stills almost every day.

I was leaning towards the JVC Everio with the 60 GB Hard drive but I noticed quite a few reviews saying the battery only last an hour. Did you buy a larger battery? If so how much more was it?

I was trying to find one that takes SD memory cards or SDHC memory cards as I have a lot of them for my Canon camera and could easily just use some of them for each. If anyone knows of a camcorder that takes the same memory cards please let me know.

I think I'm going to go to Future Shop and see what is available and ask some questions.

The main purpose of this camcorder is to get good video of Fantasmic.

 

[coastgirl]

Interesting on the battery. We'll see how ours manages; no hard drive to power, anyway. FS tried to sell us a bunch of extra stuff, but we got a camera bag we like fine for $12 at The Source, and dh got 16 gig of memory on a different sale at FS for about $50. We had a terrible time with the FS warranty on our laptop, so wouldn't buy that again, though my BIL got good value out of buying their warranty on something else. I have tried the still camera and for my purposes, I like it. (Most of my pictures these days get taken with my cell, which tells you I'm no pro! I just want something handy when the kids are doing something cute. .) So I'll carry the new Everio as my "everything" and dh will have his dedicated digital camera. We had a terrible $100 machine (video and still) we bought at CVS or something on one of our trips to Fl a couple of years ago...gave it to the kids and they are LOVING it. In fact they'll probably end up better videographers for learning to deal with the blurry, shaky limits of it!