Hi,

I'm looking to get a mini DV recorder for around £250-300 and have become focused on either Panasonic GS-11 or JVC GRD23.

I'd be interested to know if anyone thinks that DV In is a real necessity, I'm not sure if I'd need it but have thought that it could be very useful.

Anyone one who owns either or could provide any info on the above then please do.

Many Thanks

Neil

[Elad]

If you are serious about buying the GS 11 I would recommend you pay the extra £50 - £60 for the GS15. For that you will have in/out and the ability to take stills onto an SD Card (8Mb card supplied).

[w4yne]

Neil

I have got the Nvgs 11 b and for the money it is excellent and very easy to use , don`t be put off by the price because I have heard it is down to an aggressive pricing policy by Panasonic .

The camera itself is compact and light yet feels well made it has 24 x optical zoom and even at full zoom it is does not suffer from bad picture wobble as I have been testing it by hand and have not noticed any real problems with this , not tried it on a tripod yet but I would expect it to be almost perfect , picture and sound quality is good ( no motor noise ) but I have heard that night or dark recordings may be a little grainy but this is not a problem for me as I mainly want it for daylight use although in fairness any camera in it`s price range will probably be the same , other points worth noting are you can take still pictures onto the video tape but only at 0.8 M pixel it can be connected to a pc via usb for use as a webcam , it comes with a Software CD , shoulder strap , AV leads , usb lead , battery and charger and two remote controls , 1 wired remote the size of a small pen for tripod work with the basic - functions zoom record and another wireless credit card size remote .

Up to now I have only shot around 70 minutes worth of video with it and that is just test stuff - playing with the different settings but I am very happy with the results so far and feel I made the right choice for my budget / needs although as mentioned above you may be interested in the Nvgs 15 that has DV in which may be useful to you but IMO the SD card for photo stills is not worth worrying about and if you want to take stills look for a dedicated photo camera.

Edited - Duff info given .

Hope this helps.

Thanks for taking the time and effort in writing such a detailed reply Wayne. Your comments have been noted and are being considered!

I notice that from Internet cameras direct you can get it for £299 with an extra battery. Just curious as to how have you found the length of the battery life.

Many thanks once again

Neil

Originally Posted by w4yne

DV in is only useful if you have analogue footage ( VHS or 8mm camcorder tapes etc) you want to transfer onto digital tape then onto pc for editing or burning to DVD .

SORRY W4yne DV-in is no use to you at all if you have analogue footage, to get that into your camcorder and thence to PC you need AV-in - a different function.
The purpose of DV-in is to allow you to record from your PC to a blank tape in your camcorder and thus save your edited masterpiece at full quality for possible future use after you have removed all the original files from your computer to give you more HDD space. Remember that even if you burn a DVD the video on that is very compressed and although you can re-import from a DVD for future editing the quality will be very much reduced.

[w4yne]

Originally Posted by Beejaycee

SORRY W4yne DV-in is no use to you at all if you have analogue footage, to get that into your camcorder and thence to PC you need AV-in - a different function.
The purpose of DV-in is to allow you to record from your PC to a blank tape in your camcorder and thus save your edited masterpiece at full quality for possible future use after you have removed all the original files from your computer to give you more HDD space. Remember that even if you burn a DVD the video on that is very compressed and although you can re-import from a DVD for future editing the quality will be very much reduced.

Thank you for correcting me

Sorry if I misled you Neil but the rest of it is right battery times are around 1 hour charging and maximum 1hr 45 min continuous recording or 55 min intermittent recording through the viewfinder less if using the lcd , batteries on ebay for less than £20.

[Elad]

Just thought I would let you know that the photographs taken on the SD card with the GS15 are excellent quality for viewing on the computer - I have no need to print these out. Fow the extra £50 the GS15 is well worth it!

[w4yne]

Originally Posted by Beejaycee

Remember that even if you burn a DVD the video on that is very compressed and although you can re-import from a DVD for future editing the quality will be very much reduced.

What you mean at 63 years old and your eyes are still good enough to see imperfections in DVD quality?

Another bit about that I don`t get is that you make sure you are happy with the finished edited results before you burn them to DVD and then any further copies required would be a simple 1:1 disc copy but there again I am only shooting home movies and not the latest blockbuster.

Originally Posted by w4yne

What you mean at 63 years old and your eyes are still good enough to see imperfections in DVD quality?

any further copies required would be a simple 1:1 disc copy

Yes even at the ripe old age of 63 I still have 20:20 vision - in fact propably better than that as I can read the bottom line of the eye test chart with no problem at all.


It is very difficult to copy a disc if you have scratched it , or that smart label you stuck on it has lifted the silver backing, or that marker pen you used to title it has bled ink through the backing rendering the disc unreadable.

I'm also interested in these two cameras. You can get them both for about £240 on the net and they are now within my budget. I'm just going to pop out and give them both a try.

I've already got a digital still camera so I'm not too worried about the photos. However, I'd like to film a bit indoors so the comments about the Panasonic are a liittle concerning. Mind you, if I'm forking out so little I shouldn't expect perfection.

Anyone tried the JVC indoors? What's it like?