[Melanie S]

I have never bought a camcorder before and would like to buy one for my husband as a present. He has hinted he would like a hard drive one, but i've read some of the reviews and I am quite hesitant now. I have a budget of £350. He would use the camcorder on family holidays, family gatherings etc. He has had a comcorder in the past, but I know he would like one which he fairly easy to transfer to computer, record to disc etc. Can anyone give me advise. Thank you

[rhubarbe]

I should buy him this:

£349 and free delivery:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000ULLQD...ag=xmfgz478-21

All the advantages of a Hard Drive cam but it uses (just about) indestructible SDHC cards. You take the SDHC card out of the cam (when it is full), insert the card into a card reader in your PC (or a USB card reader if your PC doesn't have an integral reader). Then you drag and drop the MTS files to a folder on your PC.

The HDC-SD5 is also a high definition camcorder.

[Melanie S]

Thanks very much for your reply, but presently we do not have any high definition televisions in our house. Should I therefore choose a different model?

[rhubarbe]

I wouldn't have said so, no. My camcorder outputs at 1920 x 1080i and my TV is only 1280 x 720p and I don't have any trouble because the TV scales the picture.

You can always use editing software to transcode the HD picture to SD DVDs to play now and yet retain the original HD footage as archive.

I expect you'll have an HDTV in a short time and think of all the wonderful high definition footage you'll be able to enjoy that you won't have if you buy a standard definition camcorder now....

[Melanie S]

Thanks for your help.

[redsox_mark]

Agree. If you have a TV which isn't HD (or is but not full HD) but will accept the 1080i signal, you can watch that. If not, if your TV has component inputs, you can configure the SD5 to send standard definition, and it will play that.

In the worst case, you can use the composite video output from the SD5, which will work with any TV. You won't get the full impact of the quality, but as Rhu said, one day you'll get a HDTV.

[Melanie S]

Sorry, just another question. If i understand correctly this camcorder uses AVCHD. Will this be a problem burning recorded clips to DVD and playing them back through a normal DVD player. Our current PC has windows vista basic and has a sticker saying core 2 duo. (sorry i'm not very technical.) Will I need to buy anything additional.

[rhubarbe]

I'll leave that one to Mark, 'cos of how he's dead brainy, and I just play raw MTS clips (being lazy).

[redsox_mark]

With the software that comes with the cam, you can convert to standard DVD format, and make a DVD video which will play on your DVD player (though in standard definition). The core 2 duo sticker is a good thing. You won't need to buy anything else (except some blank discs).

[Melanie S]

Thanks Mark. Is this panosonic HDC-SD5 a camcorder you would also recommend for my budget of £350

[redsox_mark]

Yes, I agree with the pink blobby one. The SD5 sold for over £500 just 6 months ago. It is only that cheap as it is discontinued (replaced by the SD9). But there is little difference between the two, and the SD9 is over your budget. For £349 it's a good deal.

[rhubarbe]

I blame the consumption of too much .