Yet another which camcorder thread.

[Badger0-0]

I need your help guys.

Right, the daughter is doing her exams ready for college and wants a camcorder for A level Media studies, as a reward for doing well

I haven't a clue and to be honest, I'm not sure she knows what she wants.

I've done a brief bit of research on here, but the absolute truth is I have no interest, sorry

I'll tell you what she's told me.

She wants to be able to edit, via her lappy, which is an AMD Turion 64 (2.0ghz), with 500Mb and 80Gb.
A quick yes or no, if this could handle HD editing would be nice.
An external mic socket would be used, she thinks.
It would be a combo of inside and outside sort of lighting.
Image stabilising would be nice, although I think they all have that.
I've read that 10X zoom is nice, so that would be good.

And that's about it.
Unless I've missed something important.

Oh, one last thing, she'll be buying her own media, so advice on that would be great, re which way to go.


If you could just give me a few models to look at, I'd really appreciate it.
No doubt, it'll be a case of "I like that one", purely on looks, you know what kids are like
I'm a bit worried that it will be a faddy thing, so budget is bottom end (£2-300).
Then, if she takes it seriously, I'd probably buy her a better one at a later date.

Thanks in advance chaps

[redsox_mark]

In that range, Standard Def, miniDV tape gives the best quality. Easy to edit on a PC. Canon MD101 - costs around £200, has an external mic input. Popular with schools for media studies, as it's the only model in this price range with an external mic input.

[Badger0-0]

That's great.
Somehow I suspected you'd come up with the goods

Many thanks mate, that'll do for me

[Badger0-0]

Just for feedback;

Ordered from the Devon camera company yesterday morning.
Not the ultimate cheapest, but they have a deal where you get an everyday two for one cinema ticket job, which was a clincher for the missus (the daughter and her mate are always at the flicks).
Super quick delivery, it came this avvy

Seems fine, but no tape supplied, so she'll have to wait till tomorrow

Thanks again Mark

[redsox_mark]

Hope she likes it!

[Badger0-0]

I'm sure she will, what with her and me, not knowing the difference

I'll post more feedback later, hopefully

[Badger0-0]

Feedback.

Yep, she loves it.
Easy to use and ticked all her boxes

Cheers, Mark

[Mark Ward]

I found a few user reviews that claim you can hear the MD101's tape mechanism in the recordings. Have you experienced this? These were only user reviews on Amazon BTW.

Thanks,

Mark.