Camcorder purchase - help needed.

[Didzi]

Hi

I am looking to purchase a camcorder in the next couple of weeks and have been reading up on the pros and cons of a few different camcorders and brands, however I am still unable to make up my mind and need some assistance to help my purchase.

The camcorder will be mainly used for holidays, etc and I would like to spend roughly £550 GBP.

I am still not 100% decided on ther actual format I would like to use , so any recommendations and help to choose between the different formats would be greatly appreciated. What other benefits are there to the Hard Drive camcorders, other than not having to purchase Media?

Is it true that the new Hard Drive camcorders, such as the JVC Everio G Series , capture in a format that takes an age to convert on your computer to DVD format?

[jomike]

Originally Posted by Didzi

Is it true that the new Hard Drive camcorders, such as the JVC Everio G Series , capture in a format that takes an age to convert on your computer to DVD format?

AFAIK these camcorders record in Mpeg 2 format which is the same as DVD format. In theory you should be able to burn these straight to DVD without any further encoding. The disatvantage is in editing the mpeg 2 files, although there is software available that allows you to do simple editing without re-encoding (eg. Womble and VideoReDo).
The pros and cons of miniDV tape camcorders vs. DVD/Hard drive type have been debated many times on this forum as a quick search will reveal.

Regards

Mike

[Tomo1971]

I have a Sony PC55 MiniDV cam and can say I am 100% pleased with it.

I used to have a panasonc nvds15 (converted to DV in and out) and although this was a good, decent camera with good low light capabilities and optical zoom etc it was just too bloody big.

Now the PC55 aint the best at low light conditions, the pic is a wee grainy when you do shoot in low light (indoors at night time) but every other time it is fine.

The main point for me purchasing this over other similar specced cams was the size of the thing. It is so more easy to carry round with you and hence more likley to get more use out of it than 99% of the competition. If im on a day out with the family I will take the case, 2 batteriers and 2 tapes (1 of each in the cam of course). If were only likley to be out of the car for a wee while the cam (battery and tape) will just fit into my jeans front pocket, even the spare tape and battery would go in the wifes handbag if needed.

Just my thoughts!

Steve