Newbie after £200 budget cam

[Barnes]

Morning All,

Really sorry to bring up a well used thread but could anyone give me advice on buying a cam up to £200 please.
It's going to be used for holidays etc but also recording my daughters dancing which is recorded indoor with low(ish) light.
I've been borrowing my neighbours Samsung which does give adequate indoor performance but not brilliant quality.
The dancing competitions are only held 3 -4 times per year so I'm not too hung up about outright indoor performance.
Results will be viewed on a 42" plasma, do I need wide screen recording or will the zoom facility on the tv suffice?
Could you advise on a short list please, if I've to stretch the budget I don't mind going to £250.
The JVC GR-D740 (£180 at Jessops) seems to appreciated in this Forum but please point me in best all rounder in this price range.
Many thanks for your help.
Steve.

[jetinder]

The samsung's a load of kak with images which look like they where taken on "sand paper".

The GRD740 is good but see the following website
:-
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/128197/#Alternatives

The GRD770 is the top of the range minidv camcorder and that comes with a one year warranty + its now £141 including free postage, you cant beat that for price.

I got mine 2 weeks ago from e-buyer and so far I'm a happy bunny

Before that i used the Samsung 375 and believe me that was kak. I also played with Sony, Panasonic and JVC out of them all i found the JVC had good picture quality in all situations and was less grainy in low light as well.

The GRD720, 740, 760 and 770 give better indoor + out door performance.

A 42 inch plasma is a widescreen tv so you'll need to record in wide screen the JVC GRD720, 740, 760 and 770 all have widescreen and overall are good value for money.

The Canon 101 costs around £160-£200 that + Sony HC47 also have widescreen, but the Sony costs £250 or more, thats around £100 more than the JVC GRD770 from E-buyer.

With buying a camcorder on the internet you have a 7 day cooling off period (after the camcorder is delivered to you), buy the camcorder and see how it feels.

If your happy keep it, if not send it back in the same A1 condition it came in for a full refund.

[Barnes]

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. JVC is the way forward for me, however I've never bought off e-buyer. How long did it take for delivery?
Cheers,
Steve.

[felix2]

I've had a few good experiences with ebuyer (but have also heard one or two people who've had a few problems) - I'd buy from them again. They generally offer a range of delivery options at different prices, including 'Next Day', if the item's in stock

[jetinder]

On/off I've used E-buyer for 5 years and they havent let me down.

You get delivery options including next day, but the cheapest one which will give the total price (cost of camcorder + postage) at £141 is the free delivery also called supersaver within 5 working days delivery.

Unless your in a hurry waiting 5 days for delivery isnt that bad.

When i got my GRD770 the box was fully sealed and unmarked, the item was in A1 condition.

[Barnes]

Hi,
Thanks fo the good advice.
Cheers.
Steve

[rhubarbe]

I've bought from ebuer for the last three years with no problems...

[Jim Jones]

hi
im looking at something in this similar criteria too

a couple of quick questions

aernt minidv's old school? whats good about them?

does the SD/MMC card come in the package, and what size (gigs) would be suitable for 2hrs of recording time?

how big is it? im not expecting it to be tiny as its cheap but would u say its a resonable size

how many megapixels are the still shots?

[jetinder]

Originally Posted by Jim Jones

aernt minidv's old school? whats good about them?

Depends on your prospective.

They say 35mm film, VHS tapes and CD players are old school but shops still sell these and people still buy them.

Minidv tapes are cheap, easy store (they are about the size of a match box so you can store them any where), you can buy them from almost any where, quality is just as good as minidvd and Hard Drives. The movie isnt saved as MPEG2 file, i think its saved as an AVI file, after importing to your PC your editted movies keep the same original quality.

Minidv tapes are also used on high end High Def camcorders as well.

Originally Posted by Jim Jones

does the SD/MMC card come in the package, and what size (gigs) would be suitable for 2hrs of recording time?

No you have to buy it seperately, on mine i have a 2gb card and for simple pictures its fine. On JVC, Sony and i think Panasonics you can't record movies on to SD/MMC cards, on Samsung you can but its a pile of kak, looked like coloured blocky teletext screen or ZX81 screen with colours.

Originally Posted by Jim Jones

how big is it? im not expecting it to be tiny as its cheap but would u say its a resonable size

3 1/2 cm x 2 1/2 cm

[rhubarbe]

I had a memory card SD camcorder last year. This year I wanted HD and after weighing it all up I bought an HDV tape camcorder. I bought fourteen quid's worth of tapes and with those I can film for 14 hours and don't have to worry about files stored on my PC in the event of a HDD crash.

[senu]

Originally Posted by Jim Jones

hi
iaernt minidv's old school? whats good about them?
..?

A lot actually.. dont let the "gadget" marketing decieve you.. The new formats are clever and seem a lot more convenient but all is not as it seems

Originally Posted by jetinder

Depends on your prospective.

They say 35mm film, VHS tapes and CD players are old school but shops still sell these and people still buy them.

Minidv tapes are cheap, easy store (they are about the size of a match box so you can store them any where), you can buy them from almost any where, quality is just as good as minidvd and Hard Drives. The movie isnt saved as MPEG2 file, i think its saved as an AVI file, after importing to your PC your editted movies keep the same original quality.

Minidv tapes are also used on high end High Def camcorders as well.

CD players are not old school..
Not every body likes thier music as Mp3 or as itunes.. and even the admittedly "old school "Vinyl records are still treasured by some folk.
However the point is made.
MiniDV tape is not in the same "old school" category as VHS tape or 35mm film or even vinyl. And People buy them not because they don't know better
Not only is the video digital, Its starting quality of DV AVI is less compressed ( practically uncompressed compared) and able to retain good quality during editing than Mpeg2
So its quality is not "just as good" as miniDVD or HDD, it is better. Tapes bulk, moving parts ect make it an easy target for marketing of SD/ HDD as an old " inferior" format.. not so. Most Semi Pro, and Pro and broadcast grade camcorders still use tape.
Time marches on though and marketing forces are pushing tape into the background but poorer quality is not one of its " disadvantages"

[Jim Jones]

thanks for the input!

whats the process of tranferring the minidv's onto the pc to then burn onto dvd's? do u have to play the whole tape whilst it records onto the pc?

how much would i be looking to spend for a camcorder of similar performance as this jvc one but with a hardrive instead of minidv's?

are the still shots good quality on the jvc?

[senu]

Originally Posted by Jim Jones

thanks for the input!

whats the process of tranferring the minidv's onto the pc to then burn onto dvd's? do u have to play the whole tape whilst it records onto the pc?

It is a real time process and involves 2-3 steps
Capturing to the Pcs HDD via firewire from the camcorder to the PC; Pressing "play" on the camcorder and clicking "capture" on the PC

Converting the camcorders files ( now on PC) to a DVD compatible format..
then
burning to DVD
These can be done in a relatively straightforward manner but where editing is required the steps become more clearly demarated

how much would i be looking to spend for a camcorder of similar performance as this jvc one but with a hardrive instead of minidv's?

Aim for higher the GRD770 is value for money but hardly the last word in qualoity or features. A good HDD model will set you back about £4-500 . Less may mean something has been sacrificed: Quality, features or HDD size.

are the still shots good quality on the jvc?

Couldnt tell you but I would imagine not good for much except maybe web use TBH