Digital Camcorder Advice...HELP!!!

[Flyfly_Eclipse]

Hey, I am asking for a digital camcorder for Christmas...mind you, this is an investment in one of my biggest hobbies and potential career choice. My mom was looking into them but has NO idea what to look for.

See, I'm into video editing. I use Pinnacle Studio 8 on my computer. I only had a camcorder that's a few years old now (uses the VHS-C tapes) and I had to worry about hooking up the camcorder to the computer, capturing the video and audio using a special program (and hardware), etc. The quality isn't that great and the camcorder is huge and bulky.

What my question is, do you have any recommendations on a digital camcorder? Most important features are a decent zoom (preferably higher than 10x optical...and then some extra digital zoom of course) and a color viewfinder (but isn't as important). Special features like special effects and all are not necessary since I do the video editing on my computer. Quality of video is important though. Anything smaller and lighter than the camcorders that use VHS-C tapes would be great.

Any advice would be great! If you need more information about the intended use of the camcorder or something, feel free to ask. I want to get the right camcorder.

 

[BarryHom]

Personally, I'm biased to Sony camcorders because of the Nightshot feature and the Carl Zeiss lenses. I have a DCR-TRV22 and it works great for me. I'm not big into the DVD camcorders since the media is so expensive and it holds too little video. The Micro DV cameras are neat, but the media too is expensive.

My recommendation: go to Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. and play around with a few of them. See which one best fits in your hand, one you can lug around, etc.

 

[Flyfly_Eclipse]

Thanks Barry. My mom was wanting me to check into the Mirco DVs also, so I'll get a better idea of pricing at the store. She was also having me do the research online, but guess the store would be the best bet for testing them out, huh? Bad thing is we'd have to drive out of town to go to one of those places

 

[dennis99ss]

You are on the net. Try BH Photo. Best prices around.

 

[WeirdEyes]

I bought a mini DV last year around this time that I really like. It is a Canon MC ZR50; loaded with bells and whistles. However, I just saw a commercial for a Sony that records straight onto a DVD. I wish I had waited, but there's no telling how much it cost. Good luck and have fun!!

 

[dennis99ss]

The sony dvd is only about $1000

 

[Flyfly_Eclipse]

Thanks...though I'd prefer something under $600 if possible. Maybe if the holidays were 6 months or more away, a more expensive camcorder would be more plausible. Anyway, I've heard that digital camcorders do not work well in low light. Is this true for all models or only certain ones?

 

[Flyfly_Eclipse]

Originally posted by WeirdEyes
I bought a mini DV last year around this time that I really like. It is a Canon MC ZR50; loaded with bells and whistles.

I wanted to post a quote I read on Amazon. It's only an exert, but I wanted your opinion...see if you have different thoughts or what. I really want good quality video...as good of quality as I can get for under $600 at least...

Recording quality is where the camera falls short. I lined up the Canon next to an older Sony DCR-PC10 (since I didn't have the TRV27 yet, this was the closest test I could do). Holding the cameras side by side, my friend and I shot indoors images, outdoors images, and zoomed in/out with the optical zooms. Comparisons were made based on video quality, color accuracy, brightness and sharpness.

The Canon was consistently off in terms of color accuracy: whites tended to have a red cast and purples were blue. The Sony was very accurate and even its LCD was close to what our eyes saw. Light/bright colors were blown out when outdoors on the Canon, but the Sony captured more color detail in these situations.

The Canon was roughly 20% darker than the Sony in low light. Using the Canon's Low Light and Night modes did not sufficiently compensate for brightness. Image was very grainy and dark in situations such as normal office lighting. Grain became excessive on the Canon at moderate to high zoom levels, but was always present nonetheless. Sony was superior to the Canon in all these situations. Furthermore, the Sony image was approximately 50% sharper and retained better detail on subjects like the folds of a shirt or leaves on a tree. Manipulating the manual settings such as shutter speed, or the various AE modes did not significantly improve quality on the Canon.

 

[gallaj0]

I just got a Sony TRV350, and love it. It's got allthe great features of my old Sony 8MM, but records on regular 8MM tapes in digital. It outputs in digital, through firewire or USB, without any extra decoding hardware; it is backwards compatable with regular 8MM tapes, and changes the analog recording to digital for output, and has inputs on the camera to connect other cameras or VCR's to transfer analog into digital on your computer.
Good Luck.