camcorder buying help

[Cinbride]

I'm looking for a new camcorder. I had the mini DV before. I'm looking for something under $400. I don't like the flip or the ones that record onto dvd. I've looked at JVC and Sony. please tell me what you have and what you like don't like. I'll be using for taping my kids and vacas. I was looking at hard drive ones. But am a little concern if it would malfunction and not record. Please also tell me what you record onto thanks

 

[left210]

I am in the same boat as you. I am looking at getting a new camcorder for Xmas. I have it narrowed down to the JVC Everio MG630 or the Sony
DCR-SR47. I would love some input on either of those.

 

[squirrel]

I bought the Panasonic SDR-H80.

I bought it because it has both a Hard Drive and a memory card slot to record on. I have a camera (Canon) that takes the same size SD cards. It also has a 70X optical zoom.

The battery lasts about 2 hrs and I found that to be enough for my day at each of the WDW parks.

I bought the camcorder about 2 weeks before my trip and found it easy to use and I didn't even need to pull out the operating manuel while at WDW.

The only thing that is a tad annoying is that you have to take the battery off in order to connect the AC adapter.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

Last month we purchased the Soney DCR-SR47. We love it. It is so small and easy to carry around. It fits in a jacket pocket. It takes good videos. It isn't High Definition, but it still does a good job. The only thing I don't like is that it doesn't have a viewfinder. So you have to flip open the screen to take videos. Sometimes in a dark room- like a school play etc- you don't want to disturb others around you with the light from the screen. KWIM. I didn't even think about it when we purchased it.

We watched it at amazon for over a month. One day it dropped down to $299.00 and we bought it. Its back up now. Also we bought it straight from amazon. I'd be careful of some of the 3rd party sellers at amazon.

Its a hard drive.

 

[left210]

Last month we purchased the Soney DCR-SR47. We love it. It is so small and easy to carry around. It fits in a jacket pocket. It takes good videos. It isn't High Definition, but it still does a good job. The only thing I don't like is that it doesn't have a viewfinder. So you have to flip open the screen to take videos. Sometimes in a dark room- like a school play etc- you don't want to disturb others around you with the light from the screen. KWIM. I didn't even think about it when we purchased it.

We watched it at amazon for over a month. One day it dropped down to $299.00 and we bought it. Its back up now. Also we bought it straight from amazon. I'd be careful of some of the 3rd party sellers at amazon.

Its a hard drive.

It is down to $299 right now. We were considering this one too but it has some bad reviews that the video quality it not good. Glad to hear it is a good camera. Also it will be $299 on a 2 day sale from Sears the Fri and Sat after Thanksgiving.

 

[nedac]

For vacations and most everything else, you cannot beat the Flip Mino. I loooove mine. Sold off my $900 JVC, dont need it anymore.

 

[wmharley]

Canon has generally the best video quality (researched it and have friends with their own video production companies)...

that said, i'd recommend getting something with an internal HDD or even the new Flash memory units. I doubt you coudl get an HD recorder at that price as most of the Canon Vixias are in the 5-700's range...

 

[KAYLI'S DAD]

we have the older model sony dcr sr40. I bought it almost 3 yrs ago. It has the 40gb hd. Never had any problems with it. Just emptied it tonight to prepare for our trip in a couple days.
I want to upgrade to a high def one now though.

 

[Cinbride]

Those are the two I was looking at. I was leaning towards the jvc everio 630. It's not a bad price but I was really hoping to get a sale on it. it also has removable memory. I don't want to lose my memories. What kind of card just a regular sd card and how long do those how videos. I just spent over $400 on a canon sx10 camera, that I told him I was going to use for video I do and I am but (hehe) it's not the best for low light it gets blurry. I do want to get something soon. I have two kids and don't want to miss some of their milestones. I don't really care about a viewfinder, I never used it on my other one. Or really the hdd. I still have the big butt projection tvs.

What do you record on to ? I am always confused about which dvds to buy
-R ; -RW; +R; etc and what brand do you use?

Also, when you burn can you only do it one time. Say I only take 10 minutes of video, do I save it on the computer until I get more or can I burn onto dvd and add more later?