[Jon12345]

I am interested in a camcorder with a hard drive and wondered if you could connect an external microphone to this model? If not, any suggestions for an alternative hard drive camcorder?

Thanks,

Jon

[Benedict]

I've just got one of these and can confirm that it is not possible to connect an external mic to it.

Ben

[gur]

Originally Posted by Benedict

I've just got one of these and can confirm that it is not possible to connect an external mic to it.

Ben

Sorry to jump in but considering this camera and wondered what your experience of it is like?

[Benedict]

Firstly, let me say that I have never owned a camcorder before, and TBH never really liked the things.

I decided to buy one as my first child is on the way and wanted a way to easily capture moments that I'm sure would otherwise be forgotten. So my drivers for choosing a camcorder were as follows:

• Small, compact and light
• Easy to use (point and shoot)
• Quick and easy to transfer footage to PC to burn to DVD

I wasn't necessarily looking for the very best picture quality, but I liked the fact that I don't have to worry about tapes.

I actually love this bit of kit - especially the fact that it's really easy to find footage on the HDD - just like a digital camera really. The first thing that struck me is just how small it is!

Only downsides are the supplied battery life (1 hour on full charge - not sure if this typical of camcorders) and the cost of genuine replcament batteries.

With the currrent discount codes you can get this camcorder for £500 from the Currys website, which is £50 less than I paid for mine when I bought it there two weeks ago.

Feel free to ask if you have any more specific questions.

[MarkE19]

Originally Posted by Benedict

Only downsides are the supplied battery life (1 hour on full charge - not sure if this typical of camcorders)

Yep! That's about right for most camcorders

Originally Posted by Benedict

and the cost of genuine replcament batteries.

<cut & paste above answer> Yep! That's about right for most camcorders

Mark.

[gur]

So would you say the quality is good once transferred to dvd, I'd be looking to film in widescreen. Does the software that it comes with work with widerscreen and dolby sound?

[Benedict]

I haven't actually transferred anything to DVD yet, but the quality would be identical to that recorded on the hard disk of the camcorder as the MPEG2 compression is done in real time while recording.

Footage played back from the camcorder in Ultra mode (the highest quality) via s-video to my plasma looks excellent. I haven't tried any of the lower quality recording modes yet.

[gur]

thanks for taking the time to answer these questions, really helped make my mind up. cheers

[banjo21]

Ben,
I just ordered the 77 also. Whats the editing ability like? I hear its a propriety format and you have to rename files to MPG before you can throw them into other editing packages? e.g. Pinnacle or womble. Is this true?

I will send it straight back if I can not edit the output in the package I choose.

Any input received with thanks!

[Benedict]

OK, while I've transferred recordings to PC and viewed them on the PC, I've not had much spare time to experiment with PC editing or DVD burning, so I can't answer your question just yet.

I'll report back when I have some answers.