Newbie! Bottom end Sony miniDV's any good?

AMc

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Hi Guys,

Newbie questions alert!

I have a limited budget of up to £300. I want a camcorder for filming my little'un - capturing into the PC and burning to DVD for the relatives.
I know I'm not going to be the next Ridley Scott :). I just want a point and shoot model that's easy to use and produces decent enough results. I'm also looking for something as small as possible so I actually take it out with me (unlike the old VHS-C camcorder a mate lent me which sits resolutely in its bag).

The reviews I've read seem to rate the bottom end Sonys (at least the previous generation). I've been looking at the DCR-HC19 (about £260) and DCR-HC22 (£300).
The difference between them seems to be that the HC22 has DVin (as well as out) and comes with a cradle - the price difference is £45.

So the questions are :
1 - Are these Sony's any cop?
2 - Anyone here own one?
3 - Is DV in and a fancy cradle worth £45?

Thanks for any and all replies!
 
I can't really say how good the entry models are in the Sony range as I've not been looking at new cams for a good few years. But I have owned a total of 3 camcorders and they have all been Sony. I didn't buy them just because they were Sony, but because they were good camcorders IMO.

As for the price difference between the 19 & 22 - Well I would say the £45 extra is worth paying just to get the DV-in as this can not be enabled on the new camcorders afterwards - at any cost as it is now hardware disabled instead of just software disabled as it was in the past.
DV-in is often found to be vital for many users as a DVD is often very easily damaged and therefore you can make a more reliable copy back to a new DV tape for archiving. IMO the short term saving is actually a waiste of money in the long run!

Mark.
 
Had my HC22 for a few weeks now. It's my first camcorder, after years of saying it would be a waste of time! Obviously nothing to compare to, but it does everything you probably want it to. It's got an "easy" button that means even the SO is happy to use it and a few more advanced features for tricky lighting or if you just want a play around a bit. Connection (via firewire) was a doddle into Win XP and the quality is good enough for me to happily watch it on my "92 screen via the projector. The touch screen is simple to use and reasonably easy to navigate, although once you've got it going you don't really need to touch it.

DV IN is becoming less necessary with the cheap cost of DVD burners but I thought it worth having and intend to use it to archive uncompressed footage for later use etc. Also, the docking cradle that comes with the HC22 is far more useful than I really anticipated, especially when it's new and your backwards and forwards to the PC every 10mins to look at the last lot of video!

I've not had any trouble importing footage to Win MovieMaker2 and more recently Adobe Premiere Elements (PE - 30 day trial on their website). I've got a slight problem at the moment actually trying to get footage back into the camcorder from PE but think this may be an Adobe device control issue. The power and simplicity of either of these packages is one of the reasons I eventually decided to buy a camcorder. It's so easy to knock up some reasonable footage into a professional (if you squint a bit!) looking product.

Would I buy it again?
Definitely.
 
PJ has made a good point re. the cradle/docking station. It means that you are not yanking wires out constantly, which is forever weakening exspensively repaired connectors. And it's sitting there just waiting for you to drop the cam on to charge/transfer/play with :D
Wish I had one :(
Sony do seem to put smiles on most people's faces on this forum.
 
I've an HC14, I've not had it long - hardly used it infact, and I can't beleive that the HC19 you are looking at is now the price I payed for my HC14. I hate that.

Anyway, there's not much between the 2 I think (there's a comparison chart at Sony I used - that's why I went for the 14, the other were more bucks for very little extra bang), so if you have a specific question I can let you know what mine's like.
 

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