I need a camcorder - please help! (I'm new to this!)

vaderag · 16-01-2006, 3:18 PM

Hi!

I've got to buy a camcorder for use in our Students Union. I have about 500-600quid, and clearly digital is better, but other than that, i dont have a clue!
Do i want a hard disk recorder or something that burns straight onto dvd?
Any advice on a decent model at this price would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
Andy

owain_thomas · 16-01-2006, 3:38 PM

I'm in a similar position myself, after reading quite a bit on here and elsewhere I think I've settled on the Sony DCR-HC90E. this can be had from www.amazon.co.uk for £450 including delivery.

It is a MiniDV format which I believe gives better video quality than the hard disk/DVD recorders, it need tapes but these are very cheap (£18 for 10 with amazon for example). I plan to connect this to my PC with firewire and do some basic editing on there.

A lot of my shooting is likely to be indoors so I need a camera with good low light performance, I believe this sony is very competitive at the price for this. the other camera I considered was the panasonic 250 but I don't think this does so well in bad light.

have a look at www.dvspot.com for some reviews and general buying tips.

I'd welcome comments from other users about this as I'm just starting out, maybe theres something glaring I've overlooked?

HTH
Owain

gingaman · 16-01-2006, 4:11 PM

If quality and editing your footage afterwards are your priorities then MiniDV is your best option.

Also bang per £ MiniDV is your best option.

However, if ease of use/access are your main priorities then an HDD cam might be the best for you.

www.simplydv.co.uk also has many good camcorder reviews, this is UK so the reviews are based on PAL machines, some review sites (eg www.camcorderinfo.com) are US and so are NTSC based which can make a difference to the quality produced plus the cam names are different and it can be difficult knowing which model is equivalent to the European model.
DVSPOT already mentioned does have some footage for each model reviewed in various dim light scenarios, not sure if that site is still maintained though.

Good luck

Gingaman