Should I buy a new camcorder in the US ?

I`m off to Florida next week, & I have been looking for a new mini dv camcorder to take with me.
The question is should I buy one out there or play safe & get one off the net asap.
What compatability issues will I face.
BTW: Sony DCR-PC105 is what I fancy bagging.

[MarkE19]

A camcorder from USA will have a video format of NTSC, and in UK we use PAL.
Most modern UK TV's & VCR's can play back NTSC video, but not at full quality & NTSC is lower quality anyway!

Prices in the USA are obviously cheaper than the UK, but these days with cheap internet sale the gap is getting much closer. Also if customs stop you on the way back into the country you will be charged VAT & import duty on the camcorder. This will almost certainly make it more expensive than buying off the internet.
Find the cheapest internet price and then go to Jessops with the company details and they will price match the internet, so no problems with it not arriving in time for your holiday.
Also buy your DV tapes in UK as the NTSC camcorders run faster and therefore the tapes will not give the full 60 minutes recording.

Mark.

[TommyVecetti]

Don't buy a camcorder in the USA unless you're going to live there. Because NTSC would be a complete hassle in the UK.

Spend more and get a PAL machine.

OK, thanks for you replies i`ll stick to a PAL model.

[Erpland]

Originally posted by TommyVecetti
Don't buy a camcorder in the USA unless you're going to live there. Because NTSC would be a complete hassle in the UK.

Spend more and get a PAL machine.

I'm not certain with camcorders but many people dont have any problems with other NTSC equipment on modern TV's, and NTSC is NOT lesser quality than PAL in all areas, NTSC has better colour for example.
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the fact that you'll need a step down voltage converter for the mains charger.
Its also not true that the camcorder will cost you more if customs stop you, at worst it will cost about the same, if you bought the camera to use whilst on holiday then it is no longer new and I think that is a way around import duty.

[Erpland]

I forgot to add the only reason stopping me bringing one back would be for warranty issues, you'll have to pay to have it sent back to the states, still worth the risk for some.
Oh and in another thread somebody mentions that you can actually pick up European models in the states, the traders over there dont miss a trick, the English spend millions of dollars shopping over there and they wont see you put your cash away over an NTSC and voltage issue.

[Mr.D]

Its moot but.

NTSC is an analogue color (sic) encoding system as is PAL.
PAL is considered to be a superior colour encoding system. ( slightly more bandwidth than NTSC and its more accurate with regard to transmission)

Thats all they are nothing to do with resolution or lines or refresh rates. DV doesn't use either until it turns analogue.

In the US they commonly use 525/60 formatted video: that is 525 line picture refreshed at 60Hz.

In the UK we use 625/50 that is 625 line picture refreshed at 50Hz.

So our native format in the UK gives you slightly better image resolution at the loss of some temporal resolution. ie you might see some flicker.

For ease of use sake I'd say stick with a uk model cam.