Hi,
Looking to buy my first camcorder for some interviewing. I (think) I need the following and am looking for recommendations:

1. External mic connection
2. External headphones connection
3. Cam holder for the external mic so I don't have to hold it (the mic) in my hand
4. Decent still capture facility, want to get a 1080x760 image onto the web
5. Image quality--not so fussy, need something decent enough for web broadcast but better than YouTube, doesn't have to be TV broadcast quality
6. Film data format must be something I can just dump onto a PC and load up into standard editing suites on a MAC or a PC -- no weirdo formats.
7. Recording media -- not fussy, can be digi tape or HD. Not looking to record direct onto DVD.
8. Tough -- will be taking the cam to harsh environements.

All suggestions gratefully received.
Paul

[kille911]

The JVC HD-3U is a good choice. I think its about $500 now with 1440x1080P resolution. It has external mic and external ear piece available. I own one and it is a good Video camera, 9/10 for day recordings! I've tken mine to deserts and to the artic! It has dual storage with an HDD or SDCH card. It saves its file format to Mpeg2 with a .tod extension. It's not too hard to get around it to edit it. This camera does work with PC or MAC but I recommend not using it on a MAC because you have to download a special program so it can work. Hope this helped!

[A n d r e w]

You don't mention a budget, but if you're looking around the £500 mark, then the Canon HF100 ticks most of your boxes. It records high definition video to memory cards using the AVCHD format. It doesn't have a standard sized accessory shoe (what you refer to as a "holder for the external mic") but inexpensive adapters are available.

Perhaps you could nominate a price range to guide those giving advice: an all-up price, including acccessories like tripod and microphone would help.

Andrew.

Thanks Andrew, I could spend £500 ($1000) or possibly a bit more.

[senu]

The Canon HV30 ( or older HV 20) may be worth a look. It is a tape camcorder but that in itself may not be a bad thing
Apart from real time PC capture by firewire, I can see any disadvantages with using it
The JVC does seem fine
If you are aiming for decent web broad cast AVCHD will present you with instant transfer and quite good HD video but you will find that it is ( in itself) fairly PC intensive to process although tranfer is simply drag and drop
With that in mind Canon HF100 is worth a look too but as for " standard editgn suites , not quite (IMHO) even though the format is by no means "weirdo" , the codecs are " newish"

[felix2]

Originally Posted by unclepauly

Hi,
Looking to buy my first camcorder for some interviewing. I (think) I need the following and am looking for recommendations:

1. External mic connection
2. External headphones connection
3. Cam holder for the external mic so I don't have to hold it (the mic) in my hand
4. Decent still capture facility, want to get a 1080x760 image onto the web
5. Image quality--not so fussy, need something decent enough for web broadcast but better than YouTube, doesn't have to be TV broadcast quality
6. Film data format must be something I can just dump onto a PC and load up into standard editing suites on a MAC or a PC -- no weirdo formats.
7. Recording media -- not fussy, can be digi tape or HD. Not looking to record direct onto DVD.
8. Tough -- will be taking the cam to harsh environements.

All suggestions gratefully received.
Paul

Hi,

I'd also suggest the Sony HC9. I use the HC7 for pretty much exactly what you want to do by the sounds of it, and am very pleased with the results. Has ext mic input, headphones out, a funny Sony accessory shoe (which you can get an adaptor for, or I use a standard bracket between the tripod and camera), pretty decent stills (not as good as a dedicated stills cam, but very useable on the web at around 1000 pixels across), good video (is even used for small amounts of broadcast if you know its weaknesses to avoid!), records in HDV to tape, but can export to PC as standard def DV (which is what I do), pretty robust for daily use - but would want to keep it wrapped up from particularly nasty or bumpy environments! It also has "spot focus" so you can touch on the screen where you want it to fix focus, which I find can very easily give fantastic results especially for interviews.

The Canon HV30 is very similar (a few pros, a few cons). They're both getting on for a couple of years old, so I don't know honestly how well or suitably the newer HDD and memory card models compare...