Camcorder advice please

[wilma-bride]

Well, after 2 trips to the World, DH and I have decided that we would really like to treat ourselves to a camcorder for next year's trip, as well as being able to use it to record all those lovely family occasions for posterity.

So, being completely non-technical when it comes to things like this, I would like some advice please. I have some things in mind for what we'd like and would gladly welcome any recommendations.

Must be small, pref. not much bigger than a standard digital camera
Must record straight to DVD/Mini DVD
Must be easy to use (I have only just mastered the camera)

That's it. I await your advice. Thanks

 

[eyoreaud]

Hi Wilma,

We bought a Sony dvd recorder a year and a half ago from Duty Free at Gatwick, they take mini disks and are recorded straight onto your disk, so no need for video tape! It's so easy to use, even i can use it, just pop in the disk, press record and your away!!! You can Phone the Dixons(in LGW Airport) and pre order it as we did and they even charged it up for us so it was ready to go when we arrived at the airport! They also sell extra batteries and spare disks. Good luck

Hope this helps,
Audrey

 

[wicket2005]

My DH bought me a Sony MiniDV camcorder this year for my birthday. It is extremely easy to use. Tapes are about 5 for £15 (60 minutes). Unfortunately, they are not making this model any more but I would imagine the newer ones are just as simple to use.

I suggest you buy a What Camcorder mag and have a look at the reviews. There are only formats available such as Hard Disc version too but you would have to transfer the recordings onto a dvd via the computer to save it. 3CCD camcorders offer the best picture quality because they use three different CCDs for red, blue and green.

 

[Deedee]

JVC camcorders are also an excellent make we have a digital one, the quality is really good. You have to be carefull with dvd cameras our friend bought one recently for their holiday to the dom republic and three out of five of theirs did not work. Have you ever had any problems like that eyoreaud?

 

[gilld]

We bought a very expensive Camcorder about 4 years ago but since buying a decent digital cmera, find we rarely use the camcorder now.

 

[Aceman88888]

I would hang on a bit if I were you.......

I have had a marvelous experience (video-ing wise) with my new mini-SLR on holiday. My SIL took our old Canon mini DV camcorder and I've got to say that the video on the SLR was far superior than miniDV.

The camera in question is a Casio Exilim EX-P505 which looks like a very small SLR but does video at DVD quality. All data is stored on SD cards and we could fit about 25 minutes on a 1gb card. Although we took our laptop with us to download every night, we managed over 2 hours video this way and over 1200 snaps.

The good thing about this is that the camera is extremely light and you do not need to lug around tapes as well. Battery life is over 2 hours even with using video.

This is not a specific all or nothing 'must buy' post for this camera but merely a heads up to some of the models due to appear in the next 12 months from most of the manufacturers, it just happens Casio was one of the first with a very good little camera.

The problem with the camcorders which record direct onto disc is that they are fine if you want to watch straight from recording, but if your recording is as bad as mine, more than half of the footage is cut anyway!. I prefer to dowload into Windows Movie Maker or similar, edit, then burn to DVD. Takes longer but much more satisfying results.

 

[Darth Turnip]

I would recommend the Sanyo VPC-C4 Xacti. No discs or tapes as it records straight on to SD memory cards. We've got one for when we go next month and they're tiny.

It records film at 4 mega pixels and takes till images at 8 mega pixels. I given our camera a good trial run at the rugby league cup final in August and you can get loads on a 1Gb memory card. Battery life seems good too. It's a bit pricey but it is tiny (definately as small as a standard digi camera) so may be worth your while checking it out on-line.

 

[Laurafoster]

The problem with the camcorders which record direct onto disc is that they are fine if you want to watch straight from recording, but if your recording is as bad as mine, more than half of the footage is cut anyway!. I prefer to dowload into Windows Movie Maker or similar, edit, then burn to DVD. Takes longer but much more satisfying results.[/QUOTE]

i agree with this, every year we end up cutting a lot of footage and putting all onto a DVD. When you record on to Discs you cannot edit what you've recorded!

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

The problem with the camcorders which record direct onto disc is that they are fine if you want to watch straight from recording, but if your recording is as bad as mine, more than half of the footage is cut anyway!. I prefer to dowload into Windows Movie Maker or similar, edit, then burn to DVD. Takes longer but much more satisfying results.

i agree with this, every year we end up cutting a lot of footage and putting all onto a DVD. When you record on to Discs you cannot edit what you've recorded![/QUOTE]

you could always go for one of the HDD camcorders

 

[Laurafoster]

Thats true, we are looking to upgrade ours as its a few years old and i want to get a decent one as im getting married out their next year, any idea where i can get some decent info from?

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Yes,
there is a forum where you can ask questions
http://www.avforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=61

My Sony TRV900E is now 7 years old, so I am looking at the new Sony HD (as in Hi Def) camcorders, they reckon the 1080i picture is superb

 

[Tron[ADS]]

Not much to add to what other posters have said, but I will say that the image quality is inferior on dvd based camcorders due to high compression used and, on the cheaper models, a low resolution CCD. To get anything like comparable quality to a miniDV model you have to use the highest quality modes, which cuts the record time down to 18mins or so, and even then its not close.
DVD camcorders offer ease of playability on dvd players, and the recorded media is perceived to look cooler, but they offer nothing on camcorder size or battery consumption. For a high end dvd camcorder to have in its tech specs "near MiniDV quality" is not good enough.
For me the loss in image quality and PC edit-ability makes them a product to avoid. It is just a stop-gap technology, as hard disk based camcorders are almost here and the next generation of blue-ray/hd dvd will be much more flexible as they wont have to compress on the fly.