Never having owned any kind of video camera before, I have just bought a secondhand Panasonic NV DS27. I understand it is about 3 years old and paid £150, is this about right? Also could anyone advise (basic I know) how I get the recorded image into my IBM T40 laptop? I have read lots about firewire etc. but don't have an adaptor for my laptop. Will I need editing software straight off or can I use windows media player (I have XP Pro) to display the recordings and burn to a CD/DVD. Any help or tips appreciated

Thanks

Mark

[paulmcg]

You can buy a firewire PC card from PC world for 30 quid. When I bought mine (packard bell) it came with studio 8se - all you need.

Additionally, windows movie maker is free and does basically the same job as any other sw.

[markdugdale]

Windows Movie Maker will not burn DVD's. Have a look at this thread for software:
http://www.avforums.com/forums/showt...85#post2421185

[Dennis Leighton]

You can get a Firewire from Maplins for £19.99!

[laser]

I paid £7.99 for a firewire card and £2.99 for a firewire cable from the local computer fair and both work fine under Windows XP and use the operating system drivers.

There was no software editing application with the firewire card so if this is a major requirement then a bundled card and software from PC World maybe a better choice. But if you already have software then you can buy much cheaper than PC World, Curry's et al.

[senu]

I doubt that you ll get a firewire card for a laptop under £20.
Then youll need a firewire cable and a bit of HDD space : One hr of DV AVI = 13G HDD space.
You can watch your captured footage in windows media player and edit with WMM but it is so basic and limiting you will tire of it quickly .To reecho what has been stated above, it will not allow you do DVD or CD. It is however useful for the " fun" factor and some people like and use it in addition to whatever else they have
You can meet them here

Nero ( Nero Vision ) is a step up for capturing and getting to DVD but it has minimal editing abilities

The link in the above post ( Markdugdale) is more comprehensive. You may note comments on hardware requirments and it is gennerally true to say you can work better the less modest your Laptop specs. Just check carefully to see that any of the software will work happily on the laptop ( Ie processor, RAM .Graphics card, Hard drive space)

[melliott1963]

Just one other thing you may need to watch out for is the speed of your hard disk.

If it's too slow (i.e. 4200 rpm), you may find that when you capture, you'll start losing frames because it can't keep up. Therefore, you may find it preferable to buy a large, fast external Firewire drive and use this to save your captured footage.

Thanks for the useful input guys, as ever once you open the subject it throws up things you would (as a newcomer) never have thought of otherwise.

[echo3]

Originally Posted by Mark8303

Never having owned any kind of video camera before, I have just bought a secondhand Panasonic NV DS27. I understand it is about 3 years old and paid £150, is this about right?

Mark

Well I still use mine after buying one new in March 2002 for about £450ish I think. It doesn't have a lot of features (like DV-in), and its bulky (compared to today's models).

It takes quality footage most of the time and has some level of manual control (focus, exposure and white balance). The manual focus is via a wheel which is fiddly compared to turning a lens ring. It also has a 0 lux infra red mode and movement sensors that can record whenever anything moves in front of the lens and pauses when there's no action to tape!

It takes filters, external mics and of course a tripod.

Not bad for £150!