Best Quality MiniDV, no features at sub £500 mark ?

04-09-2003, 2:48 PM

I've been reading specs of Mini DV's around £500. Although there are masses of models, (often from the same manufacturer !) the difference between them seems to be features rather than image quality. e.g Sony TRV 14/19/22.
I'm not interested in features (I have a still camera, I don't want DV in etc).
I've just been 2 different branches of Jessops and they both told me to save my money and get the JVC GRD20EK at around £300 (after price matching), as spending £500 wouldn't buy a lot more quality. Are they right ? Any suggestions for £500 models which will have significantly better picture/sound quality ?
By the way the guy in dixons reckoned I should spend as much as possible as the quality difference between a £ 500 model and a £650 one would be " massive". Hmmm

JayX · 04-09-2003, 4:33 PM

my first advice would be not to buy from jessops, as they are incredibly expensive (but a GREAT example when convincing parents/partners that you're getting a great deal on your new camera "its £800 cheaper than at jessops dad!"

) but as you've pricematched it shouldn't be too bad. never buy at their RRP tho

best thing to do is look thru the reviews on different cameras, maybe older cameras that have now come down in price as they'll be replaced and see what deals you can get. for instance, on the www.camuser.co.uk website (and magazine, as camuser wont put up reviews from the last year or so on their site) the bottom section will mainly detail the important info as to picture quality, for instance chroma crosstalk, grain etc. they'll put in brackets whether its good, excellent etc. then you can check up the models that are in your pricerange and find out how they score simply on picture quality alone.

sound quality doesn't seem to change THAT much as cameras at that range will use basic inbuilt mics, so i'd buy a camera that allowed you to use an ext.mic in the future, as not all offer this function.

dixons are idiots. ignore anything they ever say

what they're saying basically is, their commision on the camera between a £500 model (ie £400 if u shop around) and a £650 (ie £450 if u shop around ) would be "massive"

all consumer cameras are laden with features nobody really wants, and are simply there to make the camera look like it does more than shoot video. some people find em useful, but its depending on features. you're not going to escape it unless you shell out a load of money (and even so, the £2000 RRP sony trv950 last year has a bluetooth web browser on it.. now how many people are likely to need that ?

) so just ignore them and look up lens/picture quality information only.

08-09-2003, 7:48 PM

Well in the end I went for a JVC GR-DVP9. More than £500 and full of features so hardly fitting my criterea ! I went for this as it has more pixels than the £500 models, got a good review in this months what camcorder mag and really is small enough to go in your pocket. I did go to jessops - they price matched down to £734 and chucked in £25 worth of tapes, so it was near enough to the Internet price not to bother. Also they were quite happy to sell me two camcorders, on the understanding that I brought 1 (or both) back in a saleable condition within 30 days. Handy if you're having trouble deciding what model to get !