Camcorder Advice, Please

[bizziemom]

So I have been researching camcorders for our trip to Disney in a few weeks, and I'm at a point where I just want some good ol' personal recommendations! I'm having trouble weighing the pros and cons and I don't want to waste money on another mistake!

I have two PnS cameras, both Fuji Finepix. One is compact, 14mp/5x zoom, and the other is an SLR type with lots of features, 14mp/24x zoom. I also have a Kodak Playsport pocket video camera. I had purchased all three over the last two years with intentions of using them for video as well as photos.
While the Finepix take great photos, I am NOT at all happy with the video quality. The zoom is choppy on one, and not even an option on the other, while recording, and this is important to me. The Playsport has a very small lens and therefore cannot get all of my subjects in the video.

So, you see my dilemma. I really want to capture our first trip to WDW on video, especially Wishes. So I'm willing to get yet another camera, but unfortunately, I don't have a lot of money. I am looking in the $250 or less range, and would prefer HD and Image Stabilization.
Some cameras that I've check out online are:

JVC HD Everio GZ-HM35
Samsung F80

Does anyone have camcorder within my price range that you love & would recommend?
Thanks!

 

[photo_chick]

The first place to start is by understanding what you need to do what you want. On the playsport not getting people in the shots... that's not that the lens is too small, but rather the focal length is longer than you want so it doesn't give you a wide enough field of view for what you want. I don't know which model you have, but I know most of the playsports are in the 35-50mm range (35mm film equivalent). So you'll want to look for one that goes wider than that if that's an issue. The Samsung you listed starts at 35.3mm, so it's going to have a similar field of view as your playsport.

Sit down and figure out exactly what you want in the specs. It will help tremendously when narrowing down your search.

 

[bizziemom]

The first place to start is by understanding what you need to do what you want. On the playsport not getting people in the shots... that's not that the lens is too small, but rather the focal length is longer than you want so it doesn't give you a wide enough field of view for what you want. I don't know which model you have, but I know most of the playsports are in the 35-50mm range (35mm film equivalent). So you'll want to look for one that goes wider than that if that's an issue. The Samsung you listed starts at 35.3mm, so it's going to have a similar field of view as your playsport.

Sit down and figure out exactly what you want in the specs. It will help tremendously when narrowing down your search.

Okay, thanks... I guess I just want to be able to zoom in and out while taking video without the quality of the video significantly reducing while zooming, which is the problem I have with my current cameras. (especially the Playsport!) I'm really a novice, so I'm not sure what to look for regarding specs, I've just been reading others reviews and for every positive review there is a negative one, which makes committing to purchasing a camcorder very difficult, especially within my price range. I guess I'll just have to take my chances.

 

[hakepb]

Just to throw you a curveball, you might want to look at last year's Sony compact travel zoom still camera, HX9v or this years HX20/HX30 (there is also the HX10 with the same lens as the 9v, but "only" does 1080 60i video)

Now I know there are better $700+ camcorders, but I've not seen anyone pointing out a better $300 or $400 camcorder..

http://www.cinema5d.com/news/?p=7468


http://www.eoshd.com/content/2754/sony-hx9v-initial-thoughts

The new stabilisation system is actually a game changer and this will be a key area of my full review later. It’s like having warp stabiliser built in, or a pocketable Glidecam. It really is that effective.

 

[manning]

Too bad you don't have more to spend. This is the one I settled on. Canon HF G10. It's on its way from B&H photo now. Not cheap, cost $1099, total cost.

Here's a sample
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-SW-p2FCZI

 

[bizziemom]

Too bad you don't have more to spend. This is the one I settled on. Canon HF G10. It's on its way from B&H photo now. Not cheap, cost $1099, total cost.

Here's a sample
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-SW-p2FCZI

Good Lord. I wish I had more money to spend too!
Well, the good new is... I figured out how to take better video with my Fuji Finepix S3280 digital camera. It was a simple as going into the settings and changing the movie zoom from digital to optical. Duh! Now I can smoothly zoom in and out while recording. It does make an annoying zoom sound though, but I intend to edit most of my videos with music anyway. So it serves its purpose. I'm sure if I take the time to read the manual that came with the camera, I'll discover all kinds of features and learn how to use it better. I took the money I would have spent on a camcorder and bought myself a newer cell phone instead.
Thanks for the advise!!!

 

[photo_chick]

Okay, thanks... I guess I just want to be able to zoom in and out while taking video without the quality of the video significantly reducing while zooming, which is the problem I have with my current cameras. (especially the Playsport!) I'm really a novice, so I'm not sure what to look for regarding specs, I've just been reading others reviews and for every positive review there is a negative one, which makes committing to purchasing a camcorder very difficult, especially within my price range. I guess I'll just have to take my chances.

The zoom.. look for one that has more optical zoom. On the small cameras like the Playsport there is no optical zoom, so it's just cropping in on the image. That's why you loose quality so fast. THe same thing applies to still cameras. Optical zoom is always preferable to digital zoom.

 

[manning]

Bizziemom, Use what you got to learn how to do things. Quality tends to start at the top and filter down. The camcorder I bought is high definition (HD). Several years ago there were few HD camcorders. I believe this year all camcorders or just about all are HD.

Go to youtube and do a high definition camcorder search and you will find a bunch of HD videos to look at. If you have a mac you may come across some that won't play because you need flash player, but there are some there that will play. They will all play with Windows.

If you still want a camcorder this will give a taste on what's out there.

There are several vendors out there to buy from. I favor B&H Photo. Their prices are fair and I think they are as fair as they come. Knowledgable too. I don't know if this applies all over. I'm from Illinois and everything I have bought from them has not been taxed and ground shipment was free.

 

[photo_chick]

OT.. but since it was mentioned.. you shouldn't have any problems viewing Flash on a mac if you've downloaded the plugin. It's the iPad that can't view Flash.