Newbie to camcorders

[satkin2]

Hi
I've recently decided that I would like to purchase a digital camcorder for typical family stuff, holidays, birthdays etc; and I'm thinking of spending around £250.

I've never had a camcorder before and as such I don't really know where to begin. When I've looked over a few websites and a lot of the information is going straight over my head. I'd like a good camera, but I don't want to by over the spec that I need. - I've done that before with digital cameras, fantastic features and I barely use any of them. - it really will be for nothing special, just your average family home videos.

Could anyone give me some simple pointers for what I should be looking for or what is a good first camera to get.

Thanks very much.

[redsox_mark]

With your budget you want to look at miniDV camcorders. You can get a decent oneback for that; DVD and HDD cams will be out of your budget (and the bottom of the range models of these aren't as good quality as a £250 DV camcorder).

Features? They all will have DV output, they all will have electronic image stabilisation. All will be able to shoot widescreen or 4:3 (standard), though not all at full quality (true widescreen). Less common in this price range is DV input (useful if you want to copy edited videos from the PC back to tape) and AV input (if you convert any analogue footage to digital, e.g. from VHS).

Don't worry about "megapixels" - except for taking stills this is meaningless, as video has a fixed resolution. The physical size of the CCD is more important and/or the number of CCDs.... but in this price range it is generally a single 1/6" CCD.

2 models in or around your pricerange I like is the Canon MV960 or the Sony HC44.

[satkin2]

Thats great. Thank you.

[AlanSmithee]

Based on advice from this forum I bought the Sony HC44.
I haven't really used it yet (still waiting for the baby to be born!!) but I really like the look and feel.

See this post
http://www.avforums.com/forums/showt...27#post3230227
for more on my buying experience.

[satkin2]

Really useful post. Thanks very much for the link.

I would always favour Panasonic or JVC over Canon or Sony but have not explored the market recently at this price. Just that I have had bad experiences with Sony kit and Canon never seemed to get good write ups in the video press. However this is I admit a bit subjective. My first camcorder a JVC S-VHS C unit performed superlatively for over 10 years without attention and still works after 17 years but very occasionally drops out to black and white. My second camcorder an early Panasonic DV unit is still going strong without a hitch after 7 years. (Except that I found that if you get a certain brand of insect repellant on your hands it dissolves the labelling on the controls! Fortunately by then the function of the few unlabelled controls was second nature to me.) I have miles of tape from both camcorders to edit and transfer to ????. If you see my posts elewhere you will see that I am not particularly impressed by recordable DVD for combined reasons of robustness, picture quality, and transportability.

[senu]

I find that all the brands have stars and duffs
My own (??blinkered view)
Purely subjectively(IMHO)
Sony : usually a bit more expensive but having owned and used a high end Digital 8 ,VX2000 and 2100,FX1 and now HC1 (all admittedly not "budget") I have to say, Sony makes really good camcorders. I say this grudgingly as I dont really like Sony as a company and have made a point of not buying any other electronics from them (... again) . Sony stuff seems consistently overpriced ( with the exception it seems of the new HC3 HDV camcorder ) Oh.. I like thier miniDV tapes too


Canon:Used Xl1 Mx2 and a smaller one whose model no I forget : great camcorders but of course the MX2 and xl1 are hardly pocket money prized . Canon seem to get mixed reviews in the press especially with the budget models having rather noticable motor noise by some not everybody eg (MV960) . There is ( in these forums) also a very long thread on the MV 600 : it seems to have upset many owners


Panasonic Ive owned at various times : Mx350, 500 and GS 400 : £1000+ 3 ccd camcorders : all very well specced and mainly a joy to use: Value for money Well deserved good press reviews

JVC: Ive only used one from my brother in Law and have a "knock about" GR-DV7000EK both of whose performance underwhelmes me. I really mainly use mine now just to transfer miniDV footage to PC
I think in the budget to mid range I find JVC playing catchup with the other "names"

I was rather more impressed with JVCs HDD camcorder: which I had for a week, than the budget miniDV models

This is all subjective of course but it is a brief account of impressions from my "camcorder history" in the last 6 years

[mandm]

Originally Posted by senu

I dont really like Sony as a company and have made a point of not buying any other electronics from them (... again) . Sony stuff seems consistently overpriced

Could not agree more, very well said...

[satkin2]

Thanks for all of the good advice I've received on this so far.

I've been surfing around and seen the following...

Sony Handycam DCR-HC44
Sony DCRHC35

I'm sure it's my naivaty, but could someone explain why the former is better. The stand out for me is that the DCRHC35 has a higher optical zoom which I would have thought was a plus point, and it is significantly cheaper. Is it just that this is older or are the extras on the DCR-HC44 much better?

Thanks

[redsox_mark]

The HC44 has:

- True widescreen
- Memory stick for stills, and slightly more pixels (for stills)
- slightly larger CCD

[satkin2]

Hi

I've decided to plump for the Sony DCR-HC44. I've had a look at it in a couple of highstreet shops and it looks and feels good and having read reviews and comments it looks like it is a really good camcorder for what I require.

Thanks to all for your advice. I do wish to ask one final thing though.

I've seen that there are miniDV tapes branded as both DV and DVM. Is there any difference between these? I'm wanting to order some when I order the camcorder and I wanted to be sure that I didn't order the wrong ones.

Thanks.

[bjd]

Apologies for a slight thread hijack, but the OP seems to be sorted out .
I am going to buy a canon camcorder for a nephew. He only intends to use it for video rather than stills. Bearing that in mind, would an MV960 be a better buy that an MVX460? Does the X refer to better stills ability or am I talking nonsense?

Brian

[biggy7]

Originally Posted by bjd

Apologies for a slight thread hijack, but the OP seems to be sorted out .
I am going to buy a canon camcorder for a nephew. He only intends to use it for video rather than stills. Bearing that in mind, would an MV960 be a better buy that an MVX460? Does the X refer to better stills ability or am I talking nonsense?

Brian

the MVX460 is the better of the 2 mate, but im no expert, ive been trawling these forums for last 3 days, as i am in the market to buy a camcorder and the MVX460 keeps cropping up again and again, in the Us it is known as the Elura 100, review here: http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content...der-Review.htm

the MVX460 is supposed to have less motor noise then the Mv series aswell.

im sure some MVX460 owners will be here soon giving a proper review on it!