[nickc25]

Hi

Ive got Vouchers for Currys and PC world for £450. I want to buy a camcorder. There are only a few at pc world so currys seems the best best. Any ideas which would be the best camera for that price range? Cheers

[nickc25]

Panasonic SDRH60 Digital Camcorder for £430 seems the best so far, what do you think of that one?

I want one that will last a good while. We are having a baby in the summer so just to video things like that, nothing major. Cheers

[nickc25]

Ive narrowed the list down to:

JVC MG364B Digital Camcorder with 60GB Hard Disk Drive - £379.99
Sony SR36E Digital Camcorder - £389.99
Sony SR55E Digital Camcorder - £419.99
Panasonic SDRH60 Digital Camcorder - £429.99
JVC MG334H 30GB Hard Disk Drive Camcorder - £249.99
Canon FS100 Digital Camcorder - £269.99
Sony SR35E Digital Camcorder - £309.99
Panasonic HDD SDRH40 Digital Camcorder - £329.99

Does anyone have any of the above camcorders? It is a shame I am stuck to currys and PC world. Ive tried selling the vouchers on ebay but highest Bid I had was £432

[Three6ty]

Hi,
You could sell the vouchers at the price stated above and make a slight loss. But with the money you could go to Amazon HERE and get a Panasonic HDC SD5 High def camcorder for £350 and with the change buy a hand full of 8gb SDHC cards to go in it from the same site. You said you wanted something that will last. I am sure this will. I picked one up off here 2nd hand last week and am well impressed with it. Very small to carry round and beautiful picture quality on the plasma.
Cheers, Rich

[rhubarbe]

Agree with soulfly, most definitely. IMHO, Currys is a rip-off.

[nickc25]

I know, pcworld are decent ish for laptops but that is about it. Even then they are still expensive most of the time. Im stuck with £465 vouchers and having little choice because I can only use them in store, most of the good things are online delivery only from currys.

The only issue I have with HD camcorders is that they use memory cards and will use them up very fast..

Is it worth considering a camcorder with a 40-60GB hard drive? Ill check into that one on amazon though thanks

[rhubarbe]

An 8GB SDHC card in an HD cam will last getting on for 90 minutes, at highest quality. Each card will cost about twenty quid.

I don't like HDD cams, but others do, so it's a matter of personal taste.

[nickc25]

Originally Posted by rhubarbe

An 8GB SDHC card in an HD cam will last getting on for 90 minutes, at highest quality. Each card will cost about twenty quid.

I don't like HDD cams, but others do, so it's a matter of personal taste.

My last camcorder was when they were a lot more expensive! It was a sony Mini Dv I had in 2003 and it was about £700.

I have seen a lot of these hard drive ones but my worry is that they are hard drives - moving parts and along with a moving piece of hardware = potential disaster...

I have portable hard drives which are 500Gb, you are not meant to move them whilst turned on. I wonder if the technology is different for the camcorders but they must be similar. You would think that they wouldnt make them if they had the potential to break down though...

I might look into it a bit more. Ive put the currys vouchers on ebay anyway...

[senu]

The shockproofing of HDDs in HDD camcorders has to be good else they would have had a seriously bad name by now

I used a Canon HG 10 with 40 Gb HDD and thoroughly enjoyed it while I had ( 8 weeks) it treating it well but not like a delicate eggshell TBH
but Ive also had a Panny Settop DVD recorder ( £800 ) give up because its built in HDD failed out of warrantee and Ive similarly had external HDDs go up in smoke taking 700Gb of data with them!

Since camcorders are mobile devices ( albeit precision ones) it isnt expected that you should keep very still while using them ( that is infact good camcorder/video shooting practice though) just because they have HDDs but it is right to feel cautious even though reported disasters are quite rare
Failing SD cards are rare too and even with the "old fashioned" tapes, disasters arent as common as they could be
While I believe Solid state camcorders are " the future" . I have no particular preference for them regarding quality or user functionality

[nickc25]

Originally Posted by senu

The shockproofing of HDDs in HDD camcorders has to be good else they would have had a seriously bad name by now

I used a Canon HG 10 with 40 Gb HDD and thoroughly enjoyed it while I had ( 8 weeks) it treating it well but not like a delicate eggshell TBH
but Ive also had a Panny Settop DVD recorder ( £800 ) give up because its built in HDD failed out of warrantee and Ive similarly had external HDDs go up in smoke taking 700Gb of data with them!

Since camcorders are mobile devices ( albeit precision ones) it isnt expected that you should keep very still while using them ( that is infact good camcorder/video shooting practice though) just because they have HDDs but it is right to feel cautious even though reported disasters are quite rare
Failing SD cards are rare too and even with the "old fashioned" tapes, disasters arent as common as they could be
While I believe Solid state camcorders are " the future" . I have no particular preference for them regarding quality or user functionality

I have been doing a lot of reading and it appears that HDD camcorders are fine because they have shock proofing and they do not use a convential hard drive like in a PC. That was my main worry. I think I will split my budget and get a cheap Hard Drive Camcorder and also a good still camera. I Have £465 to spend so Ill probably spend £250 -£300 on camcorder and the rest on the camera.

[senu]

That is fine.
Money is tight and you have to make it spread

However I sincerely feel a little more for the HDD camcorder will get you to a better " cheap " model rather than one which is cheap in cost..and performance. I really dont like camcorders which dont deliver, regardless of cost..
They have the tendency to make you not use them after the initial novelty of ownership wears off or get put off using them due to underwhelming video quality

I suggest you share your thoughts on which one you wish to buy , there are some with lacklustre performance, this is typical of those priced at the lower end of the market
Sadly being stuck to Currys is hampering your choice
I would suggest similar for the camera in the camera forums..
Good luck

[nickc25]

Originally Posted by senu

That is fine.
Money is tight and you have to make it spread

However I sincerely feel a little more for the HDD camcorder will get you to a better " cheap " model rather than one which is cheap in cost..and performance. I really dont like camcorders which dont deliver, regardless of cost..
They have the tendency to make you not use them after the initial novelty of ownership wears off or get put off using them due to underwhelming video quality

I suggest you share your thoughts on which one you wish to buy , there are some with lacklustre performance, this is typical of those priced at the lower end of the market
Sadly being stuck to Currys is hampering your choice
I would suggest similar for the camera in the camera forums..
Good luck

Ive decided to spend £300-£400 on a camcorder. It needs to be from currys or pc world and Ive decided to go with a HDD one. There are some decent priced JVC ones, what are they like?

[senu]

Model nos?
The more pocket friendly ones ( regardless of Brand) have failed to thrill ( in the past)
Perhaps more recent models ae much better
However At your price range they should be fine
Im no longer very current with models nos to be honest but Im relating what I found with the Everios last year. I had used a budget one, and was asked to edit the footage from another..

The ones in the £450-500 range were quite good. The cheaper one were distinctly uninspiring in output

[nickc25]

Originally Posted by senu

Model nos?
The more pocket friendly ones ( regardless of Brand) have failed to thrill ( in the past)
Perhaps more recent models ae much better
However At your price range they should be fine
Im no longer very current with models nos to be honest but Im relating what I found with the Everios last year. I had used a budget one, and was asked to edit the footage from another..

The ones in the £450-500 range were quite good. The cheaper one were distinctly uninspiring in output

I decided to get a JVC Everio GZ-MG334. It was £250, I got 10% off to get it for £224.98 and JVC are doing a £30 cashback at the moment so it will come in at just under £195 once they send me the cash back. Plus I run my own cashback website so Ill get 2.5% back commission too (like quidco).

The reason I got this was because I was going to get the 40GB model for £350 but 30GB was £249 (well £195) and considering I will use it for maximum 10 hours a year, I didnt really want to spend an awful lot. All it is for is to video the baby when it comes in August and different things like Christening, first christmas, the odd video of the baby now and then.

So I couldnt justify spending £500+ on something Id hardly use, I thought with my wallet along with my head as in the past Ive spent £750+ on camcorders only for them to go unused for a whole year.

To go with it I got a digital camera which I havent opened yet as I am considering swapping it. I got a Samsung P1000 10 Megapixel with face recognition and a few different modes. I am considering swapping it for one of those new Panasonic Luminx TZ5 which has 10 Optical Zoom and a wide Angle Lense, that would cost me about £30 more so I am unsure what to do. Ive had samsung camera's in the past and they were good to use but I dont know if panasonic are better. So if anyone knows about them please let me know.

Thanks for the advice on the camcorder though guys