What's the best camcorder for these needs? Please Read

[Sharkadder]

Ok i have a mate who's after a camcorder, he says he wants a DVD camcorder with a built in hard drive.

He has given me some specifications on what hes after and doesn't mind paying the price, what he's after is as follows:

1. min 20gb hard drive
2. Battery life to last 2-3 hours
3. Able to recorder from hard drive straight onto DVD from the camcorder itself or burn from 1 dvd to another using the camcorder.
4. preferably under £500 but anything above that he will think about paying.


Ok that's his specifications, i know that you can get ones which will record from a HDD to DVD because i seen one of the sony ones will do it, could somebody please tell me which is the best value for money camcorder to go for which will suit these needs.

p.s. if one comes with SD slot instead of a hard drive then thats fine, just aslong as you can transfer to DVd using the actual camcorder.

thanks

[redsox_mark]

There aren’t many combination/hybrid DVD and HDD cams. I know Hitachi do some; I don’t believe Sony does. I don’t know enough about these to recommend any.

The obvious question is, does he really need such a hybrid camcorder? He wants HDD (or SD memory); I assume either because he likes the idea of it, or (better reason) he wants to edit on the camcorder itself. He also wants to create DVDs (I assume standard definition ones)? This can be done with any HDD camcorder connected to a device which can burn a DVD; the most common is via a PC, or a set top DVD recorder. Note that hybrid DVD camcorders use the small 8 cm DVDs, so you can only fit 20 mins or so at best quality. With a PC or DVD recorder you can burn a full size DVD.

For standard def, Panasonic S150 (SD card) or Panasonic H250 (HDD and SD card), or Sony SR190 (HDD). Or for high def, Canon HG10 (HDD), but that is over £500 generally…

You can get the battery life with most any model but will need to buy a higher power battery; the one provided with the camcorder usually only lasts an hour or so.

[Sharkadder]

thanks for the swift reply, he is after one with hard drive and DVD which will allow him to transfer onto DVD is so that he can give the DVD's to people there and then as he will not have a computer with him.

I forgot to mention that he is after HD but standard will do if one is too pricey, i'm willing to look at any models you may know of.

As for the SD thats ok if the Camcorder doesn't hae a hard drive, you see why i'm after both now? because he needs to copy DVD's there and then.

As for the dvd's your telling me that most take the small dvd's and will only last an hour each? can you not get none which will take and burn to normal size dvd's? he will be recording for a good few hours and want's everything to fit onto 1 dvd i'd imagine.

What models can you suggest? i know you can buy long life battery's to replace the normal one so that's all i'll do if needbe, any models which will allow these will be ace.

[redsox_mark]

I don’t believe there are any camcorders which use full size DVD discs, let alone ones with a HDD as well. The small ones will only fit 20 mins at best quality; 40 mins at good quality. 1 hour would be pushing the quality.

Again, the only ones I know of which have a HDD and (small) DVD combined are from Hitachi, and I don’t know enough about them to recommend them. Maybe others can.

I now understand the need; he is out somewhere, presumably away from power, and wants to immediately burn some DVDs. A hybrid cam could do this if he can live with the 8 cm DVDs and limited choice of models (I don’t think the Hitachi ones are the best). Or he needs to look at a different portable DVD burning solution, like a laptop PC.

[rhubarbe]

I thought that some cams come with (or you can buy for) a dedicated DVD burner? I know that there are aftermarket standalone DVD burners that you connect to a camcorder with USB.

[Sharkadder]

yeah, thanks for the info, so you say look into hybrid ones? ok i'' see what i can find, looks like he will just have to give multiple small dvd disks to people.

I know you dont know much about these but i persume once the memory on one runs out you just insert the next disk and then that will continue the burning.

If you say the normal sized disks are old news and hardly any come with a hard drive then i'll tell him to stay away.

I'm sure i can find a model with long life battery, do you know info about burn times on how quick these hybrid ones are? i may need to look into that but thanks for the info.

p.s. yeah to rhubarbe thats probably what i saw on the sony i looked at, the 1 i mentioned which burns from touch of a button, it looked like the camcorder was on some sort of flat charging stand, it must of been a burner underneath.

I'm not sure if links are allowed on here but this is the model i saw:

h**p://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sony-Handycam-DCR-SR30-Hard-Disc-Camcorder_W0QQitemZ180177477704QQihZ008QQcategoryZ 11724QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

//replace the ** with tt

[redsox_mark]

Yes there are purpose built DVD burners for some camcorders, like this JVC option
http://www.simplydv.co.uk/Reviews/jv...restation.html

Or Sony has
http://www.sony.co.uk/view/ShowProdu...ccessories#tab

But I'm not sure how they are powered; if they need to run on the mains I assume that won't meet his needs?