[grandwazoo]

Hi guys I know we had one of these recently but this is a slightly different requirement.

We need a camcorder to record school productions. The present one uses micro cassettes which we then have to transfer, real time, into Windows Movie Maker for editing. This is a PAIN.

I'm presuming / hoping that the best solution will a be a camcorder which records onto a DVD which we can then just trasnfer onto the editing PC.

Is this correct thinking? If so, good product info and price guide will be much appreciated.

thanks

Alan

[Mr Lazy]

DVD camcorders should be avoided at all costs IMO, they are more trouble than they are worth (possible loss of all footage due to a disk error/lack of finalising, compatability issues etc.). I predict that DVD camcorders won't be on sale in 2 years from now.

Better options are either hard disk camcorders or flash-memory based camcorders. With hard disk camcorders you will have to connect the camera to the PC to do the transfer. With flash-memory based cameras you just take the flash card (often an SD or SDHC card) out of the camera and insert it into a USB card reader attached to the PC.

[grandwazoo]

mmm.thanks for that important piece of info! Guess we'll probably go the HD route then

Alan

[senu]

Originally Posted by grandwazoo

mmm.thanks for that important piece of info! Guess we'll probably go the HD route then

Alan

Although MiniDV tapes require real time download via firewire, the quality of most is better than HDD or flash based models at the pocket friendly range
I would be wary of swapping convenience for quality
However spend a bit more and HDD/Flash card camcorders get better
In Hi Def this is even more so
What is actualy true is that the time spent downloading ( which can be done unattended if need be0 is often less than that used to edit
Once on the PC video files from tape, HD or flash card are handled identically
Also Windows Movie maker is at best a taster of Editing....if you chose its default and import as wmv ( rather than DV AVI) you dont get the benefits of using DV AVI.
As starting material goes it is the best SD footage