Camcorders

[xWishes]

I wanna bring a camcorder this year. I want a good one. I have noooooo idea how to look for one. What I know is that I want a small one...besides that I'm completely new to looking for one. HELP ME.

 

[MichaelH]

My camcorders are Sony. Here are somethings to think about. Do you want to record to tapes, directly to DVD, or a camera with a hard drive?

The easy solution would probably be to get a camcorder that burns directly to DVD. If you don't want to edit your video and burn to DVD yourself this is the route I would go.

I like my new camera that I bought that records to a Hard Drive in the camera. It will record up to 11 hours of video. I like the fact that I don't have to worry about running out of tapes or DVDs. It is also a High Definition Camera 1080i is what it records at.

A High Definition camera would be something else to think about also, but they are pricey. Hope that helps some.

 

[kytiam]

I wanna bring a camcorder this year. I want a good one. I have noooooo idea how to look for one. What I know is that I want a small one...besides that I'm completely new to looking for one. HELP ME.

I just went through this exact same situation! I spent a lot of time researching various models and features at www.camcorderinfo.com. A lot of the info on that site is way over my head, but at least it was a place to start. I also spent the money to subscribe to the consumer reports website and found that to be a bit more user friendly. I ended up spending way more than I should have, but I'm very happy with what I got. I ended up with a Sony dvd camcorder. Model number 605 I think. It records directly to dvd, which can then be played in my home dvd player. The quality of the video is really good, but the sound is just so-so. Another huge advantage for me was that it can shoot stills WHILE taping!! So I can tape the parade and snap stills without missing a beat!! Being a scrapbooker, I couldn't NOT take stills, and managing two cameras at the same time takes more coordination than I've got! Disadvantages include: dvd's only record 30 min. per disk. most things I recorded were less than that, so no biggie. The quality of the stills is not fabulous, but notably better in bright daylight than inside. I guess I should have tried the flash--but I couldn't remember where the button was to turn it on.
It's not the smallest camcorder out there, but still WAY smaller than my old one. Also, you can't record over what you've already recorded. That's bad if you are inclined to mess up and want to start over, but good if you're afraid you may accidentally tape over something special. I do believe this model can also use the dvd-RW disks, which would allow you to reuse the disks, but I haven't tried this yet. Good luck!!

 

[strmtroopr96]

I am interested in this info as well. We want to get a new Camcorder with the DVD format and were looking at some different ones this weekend. We saw Sony, Panasonic, and Hitachi and are wanting to spend around $300-350. My parents have a Hitachi one and have no problems with it so may go with a similar one unless anyone can offer other opinions?

We already have a Camcorder that we hardly ever use. LOL I am trying to sell that one to help fund a new one. It is the type where you record onto a mini tape and then pop that mini tape into a VHS size Playback tape and then put right into your VCR. I just want to get something small and being a DVD format, we can play it anywhere.

 

[mbatemantx]

I will throw in my $.02. I really like tech stuff and it is sort of my hobby. I would reccomend against a DVD camcorder unless you really understand what you are getting.
If you always shoot perfect shots it is probably okay, but if you are like me a little bit of editing after the fact makes better memory.
I ended up getting a tape based camera on the low end (a JVC at Walmart) and also got a stand alone DVD recorder (also from Walmart, one of the cheapo ones). I then hook the camera up to the DVD recorder and can edit a 1 hour tape onto a nice DVD with chapters and selections how I want them in about 90 minutes. I edit simply by playing the tape and pausing the DVD recorder through the mess ups.

An added bonus is that the DVD recorder can act like a VCR when connected to the TV so you can record shows to DVD instead of tape.

The final DVD's play on most any normal DVD player.

 

[Vickie46]

I have a sony mini DVC.. we also before we went to Disney bought the all day 5-7 hour battery.. it was totally worth the 80.00

 

[abeyst]

I have an old Sony Hi-8 camcorder - it takes great video even for being on tape. I tried a JVC mini-DV on the January 2006 trip and it worked ok but it made a lot of noise (the motor) which was also picked up in the video.

I'd check the site listed above or read reviews on Amazon.com. That's what I do.

I also heard that DVD camcorders don't record as high a resolution as mini-DV camcorders. That's not counting the HD camcorders tho.

I'm going to be buying one before the December trip. I can't afford an HD one, so I'll be getting a mini-DV (Sony). I like to dedit my videos and record them to DVD on my DVD recorder.

Do a lot of research, and buy from a place that has a decent return policy so you can try it out and return it if you need to.

 

[bord1niowa]

Don't forget to check ebay on these too. I bought a Sony DVC recently and wanted more battery for it and got a 3000 mah 12 hour battery with car and house charger for $35 including shipping. I am sooo happy I don't have to worry about running out while there.

 

[Rustysmom]

I also heard the mini-DVs record better quality video than the DVD camcorders.

I have a panasonic GS39 that I got really cheap at Best Buy on Black Friday and at first I thought the videos were horrible. I hooked it up with the cables to the TV and it all looked so dark and grainy. THEN I bought a firewire cable and hooked it up with that to my standalone DVD recorder, and when I saw the finished DVD, wow! It was SO clear. THe outside shots a little more so than inside though. They still came out a little dark. But I'm really happy with this camcorder and it's very tiny. It also has the anti-shake feature, which will come in handy because usually I make people seasick with my videos that go up and down. LOL

 

[mbatemantx]

MiniDV recorders are not necessarily a "higher resolution" they record with LESS compression than a mini dvd recorders. Most mini DVD recorders record in Mpeg2 since it is putting the moving straight onto a DVD that you can pop into any DVD player. MPEG2 is the compression used on comercial DVD's which is fine if you never edit your video. MPEG2 is "lossy" compression, meaning that data is lost from the original image.
MiniDV recorders are in DV compression, which is not nearly as "lossy" as MPEG2. for example 60 minutes of DV compressed video takes up 13 GB of space, vs a full length DVD is approximately 10 GB.

Bottom line if you want to edit your video, and send it out to friends via DVD or post it on a video site etc. MiniDV is going to give you the quality to do that. Using MiniDVD will result in picture degradation because it starts out with less picture information.

 

[Stack316]

I have a Sony DCRTRV260 Digital8 Handycam Camcorder

We used it at Disney World last year. It worked well, but

The feature it does not have which I wish it did was some sort of stability control. Taping the fireworks and parades often left my arm tired and at times resulted in bumpy film footage.

So I would look for a camcorder with stability control.

Make sure you buy the longest battery possible.

Although we had 2 batteries with us....we really needed them to be the high capacity ones, as they seemed to both be dead by the end of the night.

If you do bring 2 batteries make sure you have a 2nd quick charger...so you can charge one in the camera overnight and the second in the quick charger overnight.

Finally, film as much as you can. I have the parades and fireworks from most parks, I filmed Hoop De Doo, Beauty and Beast, Little Mermaid and soo much more.

During the Little Mermaid I switched to Night Vision and you can see the actors in the background moving the characters. It was pretty neat.

 

[webshark3]

Another quick comment:

DVDs > no long term storage information, and are not considered "archival". Don't trust your memories on a burned dvd only. You may get "burned".

Consumer recordable-DVDs are dyed, and dyes fade over time.

Tape has a long history, and digital on tape (DV) will last just short of forever when stored properly.

DVD camcorders are convienent, but I wouldn't buy one unless I knew I was going to archieve my video to another location.

DV tape is also cheap and available everywhere.

 

[bord1niowa]

I did have a dvd camera last year at disney. It seemed ok until I had one of the dvds, 1 1/2 days worth of shooting, including some parades, corrupted and I couldn't do anything to get it back, it just won't recognize it. It made me so mad I decided to go with the tape mini dv now. Hopefully this won't mess up this year.

 

[abeyst]

Not to play Eeyore or anything, but it could always eat the tape.....

Though you could still salvage part of the tape....


This is a great thread, thanks for starting it! It's nice when you can have some 2nd and 3rd opinions (especially when they agree with your original thought!)

 

[abeyst]

One other thing that hasn't been talked about yet - do you have a camera included in your camcorder? Do you or do you not recommend it? To get a decent megapixel for the camera feature in the camcorder it can add quite a chunk of change to the price....

 

[crzy4dzny07]

I wanna bring a camcorder this year. I want a good one. I have noooooo idea how to look for one. What I know is that I want a small one...besides that I'm completely new to looking for one. HELP ME.

We just bought a new one last fall after tons of research.

We chose a mini DV over a DVD recordable so we could edit our movies easier and at a better quality.

We bought a Panasonic because we wanted 3 CCDs (better color, more true to life). It's great, and I love that it takes 3mp stills, too. Most cameras only take 1mp stills.

If you buy online you may not have to pay sales tax. We bought from Best Buy (sign up for their rewards program for free, it's just like a grocery card, no credit check or anything like that) and added on an extra protection plan that covers the camera being dropped.

 

[webshark3]

One other thing that hasn't been talked about yet - do you have a camera included in your camcorder? Do you or do you not recommend it? To get a decent megapixel for the camera feature in the camcorder it can add quite a chunk of change to the price....

To put it in perspective, Shooting your still on a camcorder is a step above shooting your priceless memories on your cameraphone. Go to Dpreview or camcorderinfo, and they'll all tell you the same. Let you're still camera shoot stills, and your video camera shoot video. Never mix the two.

Each system is optimized for a function (still or video). Anything else is a compromise.

I think one of the poster's talked about doing a combo cam becasue she was a scrapebooker. My wife is also, and so she insisted on our DSLR in addition to our 3CCD camera. Fortunately, if you know how to manage them, I easily used both while holding a 2 year old.

 

[bord1niowa]

The camera within the camcorder on my handicam isn't anywhere near as good as my regular digital camera. We use both separately.