[JamieBee]

We have a baby due in 2 months so I want to get a camcorder all ready for the big event and for future use. Now I really do not have a clue about camcorders having never used one. My budget is up to about the £300 mark and upon browsing these forums the Sony HC96E looks a good and recommended model.

See here http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...uct_uid=108048

I have some questions :

1. I assume it is not worth bothering with one say between £100 and £200 if I want it to last quite a few years and produce good results ?

2. Am I correct in thinking models that burn straight to DVD are best avoiding due to possibilty of losing footage when finalising/burning ?

3. Does this model have a hard drive (I don't think it does?) and if not, do I have to buy a memory stick for it ? How much footage does each stick hold i.e. how much can you get on 1gb stick ?

4. Are mini DVs small tapes that you buy, put into the machine and record the footage onto ? How much are these and how many hours can they hold ?

5. To burn to DVD, do you simply plug the camcorder into your PC (is software and leads provided with product?) and burn that way ?

6. I notice the Sony is NTSC - am I better off getting a PAL one or does it not matter ? I believe my dvd recorder will play NTSC discs.

7. Do people agree this is a good camcorder or are there any others that are equally as good or better ?

Sorry about asking so many questions. I just want to make sure I am buying the right one and know exactly how it works and maybe any accessories I will need to buy in addition

[rhubarbe]

1. I assume it is not worth bothering with one say between £100 and £200 if I want it to last quite a few years and produce good results ?

Not necessarily true, just the the HC96 is excellent value right now and it is a very good cam.

2. Am I correct in thinking models that burn straight to DVD are best avoiding due to possibilty of losing footage when finalising/burning ?

I would, for the reason you cite,

3. Does this model have a hard drive (I don't think it does?) and if not, do I have to buy a memory stick for it ? How much footage does each stick hold i.e. how much can you get on 1gb stick ?

It shoots stills and saves them onto a memory stick, but the video is saved on MiniDV tape. each tape commonly holds one hour of video.

4. Are mini DVs small tapes that you buy, put into the machine and record the footage onto ? How much are these and how many hours can they hold ?

Yes..Sony Premium on Amazon cost £10.99 for 10. Buy 2 x 10 and get free delivery. See above.

5. To burn to DVD, do you simply plug the camcorder into your PC (is software and leads provided with product?) and burn that way ?

Usually and yes.

6. I notice the Sony is NTSC - am I better off getting a PAL one or does it not matter ? I believe my dvd recorder will play NTSC discs.

The HC96 from eBuyer and those for sale in shops and most on sale on the Internet for UK use would be PAL.

7. Do people agree this is a good camcorder or are there any others that are equally as good or better ?

[/I]Yes, it's very good. Do consider that to catch these once in a lifetime moments you might like to go to HiDef (HD) with a canon HV10 that you can find for just slightly (well, OK quite a bit) more than your budget. Film in HD now and you'll always have thoise moments in HD. After all, you may not have an HDTV now but you will soon and then you'll appreciate the added clarity and vibrancy of HD.[I]

[mmace]

is there no way you can stretch to Hi-def?
it will be worth it in the future, my baby's now 6 months old and I have a pile of tapes of him in HD using the camcorder I bought just before he was born.
The wife didn't want me to get it as we already had a very good Panasonic 3CCD GS400 (it's now in a carrier bag somewhere) but I put on some old home movies I had and just told her what it will be like for our son looking back at these videos in 30 years time, will he want to watch something at a quarter of the resolution than he could have had on his 300" TV/screen or whatever is available in 30 years time?
I just told her to think of the future and think about us now looking back on old crappy quality home videos and think how he can look back on something better!

[rhubarbe]

Absolutely agree.

You can get a very good price for your 400 on eBay, you know, maff, if you aren't using it. One went for nearly 500 quid the other week when I was watching.... They are really very sought after.

As an aside, I have looked at the spec of the HC96 on eNuyer and it does say it's NTSC. I would check with them as they could just have put up any old spec. I know you say that your DVDP will play NTSCbut if you only have an SDTV it may well not play them. An HDTV will, no problem. I don't think I'd buy an NTSC SD cam. HD NTSC cam, yes, in fact I do have one already, but not SD.

[redsox_mark]

I believe the HC96 on ebuyer is actually PAL and the site is wrong, based on what others have reported.... but best to check with ebuyer to be sure.

[JamieBee]

Thank you for your comments. I do not think our budget can stretch to £550 which is approx how much the Canon one is but I hear what you say about better in HD.

I do indeed have an HD ready TV but I need an HD DVD player to play the DVDs dont I or I simply leave all my footage on my DVs and just plug the camcorder into the TV and play them that way ?

[redsox_mark]

You can watch HD camcorder video in a number of ways:

- Playing the files/tapes from the camcorder (can include editied tapes you have output back to the camcorder with tape models).
- Playing high def files from a DVD (using HD-DVD player, Blu-Ray player, or PS3, depending on format)
- Play from a PC
- Play from a number of media players

[Risotto]

Originally Posted by redsox_mark

I believe the HC96 on ebuyer is actually PAL and the site is wrong, based on what others have reported.... but best to check with ebuyer to be sure.

Hi JamieBee,

If you go for the Sony HC 96e, I just received mine from Ebuyer today and it's PAL. If you want one, best to get your order in as there's only five left. When I ordered a week or so ago there were 30+.

I spent a few moments tonight harrassing the wife with it, checking out all the facilities, pretending I was Speilberg. Tomorrow, I might even get round to putting a tape in it!

Ummed and arghed about HD but decided to hold off. Tough call, though.

Alistair

[JamieBee]

Originally Posted by Risotto

Hi JamieBee,

If you go for the Sony HC 96e, I just received mine from Ebuyer today and it's PAL. If you want one, best to get your order in as there's only five left. When I ordered a week or so ago there were 30+.

I spent a few moments tonight harrassing the wife with it, checking out all the facilities, pretending I was Speilberg. Tomorrow, I might even get round to putting a tape in it!

Ummed and arghed about HD but decided to hold off. Tough call, though.

Alistair

Thanks for the heads up Risotto. I may order it tonight. What do you think of it then ? A good camcorder ? Whats the pic quality like ?

I can see the benefit of HD but £550 is a hell of a lot of money when I am splashing out loads on baby accessories

The Sony will cost about £350 with a few packs of tapes to go with it.

[Risotto]

JamieBee,

Not got round to testing it with a tape yet....will wait until the weekend when I can use it in daylight. All the reviews I've read were very favourable along with various comments on this site too. So far, pleased with the size and handling of it.

Risotto

[JamieBee]

Originally Posted by Risotto

JamieBee,

Not got round to testing it with a tape yet....will wait until the weekend when I can use it in daylight. All the reviews I've read were very favourable along with various comments on this site too. So far, pleased with the size and handling of it.

Risotto

I bought the HC94 in the end which was £100 cheaper - will arrive next week. Just out of interest - did you find the reviews on the internet ? What sites were they on ?

[redsox_mark]

Review of the HC96 here
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content...Conclusion.htm

HC94 is identical in terms of performance. The HC94 is less common (only exists in Europe I believe) so less likely to find a HC94 review.

[redsox_mark]

Oh, in case you are not familiar with camcorderinfo.com's reviews, that is a very good review. Their style is to be quite critical; even of models they like.

[Risotto]

JamieBee,

Here's a technical comparison between the 94E and 96E on Sony's website.

http://www.sony.co.uk/product/Compar...dels=DCR-HC96E

If you don't need AV-in and signal convert (which I did need), then there's no difference. Sounds like you've got yourself a bargain. £100 is a lot of lolly. Congratulations.

Risotto

[JamieBee]

Thanks very much for all of your help. My camcorder arrived today.

I will have a fiddle when I get home. Will it come with a DV tape thrown in or do I have to buy one ?

[redsox_mark]

Generally it doesn't come with a tape.

[JamieBee]

I assume I can buy a decent sized memory stick for this cam and just put footage on that, burn to dvd, erase stick and start again ?

My thinking behind this is - it will be easier to just whack a dvd on than have to connect the cam up to the tv every time you want to watch anything if stored on dv tape ?

Mark - you said the pic quality is not as good on dvd than a dv tape. Is this clearly noticeable or is it only if you look closely ?

[redsox_mark]

I assume I can buy a decent sized memory stick for this cam and just put footage on that, burn to dvd, erase stick and start again ?

No! The HC94 is a DV camcorder.... you can only get the full quality video from the DV tape. The memory stick is only for stills and low quality video (320x240 max, highly compressed MPEG).

Mark - you said the pic quality is not as good on dvd than a dv tape. Is this clearly noticeable or is it only if you look closely ?

If you shoot using the DV tape and create a DVD, you should not see any visible drop in quality, providing you use decent software or a decent DVD recorder, and a good quality setting (i.e. don't try and fit more than 2 hours on a disc; even better don't go over 1 hour).