Camcorder

[Fatter than Joey]

I am looking for a Camcorder, mostly to record my kids' sporting events -- and then to send to grandma's and grandpa's.

I am not looking for the highest resolution or professional editing.

 

Any ideas/recommendations?

[homer]

Lies! You are going to use it to record your wife snoring and then create a fetish web site! I'll sue you!!!!

[Fatter than Joey]

Lies! You are going to use it to record your wife snoring and then create a fetish web site! I'll sue you!!!!

 

Wrong. You will be the first person to sign up.

[TheCrew07]

There are tons on the market, I haven't looked at any this year I but bought a mini DV Panasonic last year because our game Camera uses DV, but it's hard to go wrong as long you pick up anything digital. If you have an HD tv, spring for the extra coin, you won't be sorry.

 

Consumer reports likes the following models the best.

 

Mini DV

Panasonic PV-GS320

Canon ZR900

Canon ZR950

 

DVD

Canon DC330

Panasonic VDR-D50

Samsung SC-DX103

 

Hard Disk/Flash

Panasonic SDR-H40

Sony DCR-SR85

 

DVD/Flash

Sony DCR-DVD910

Sony DCR-DVD610

 

Hard Disk

JVC GZ-MG730

JVC GZ-MG155

 

edit. I should add that I suggest Digital because it's easy to hook into the computer and capture the video which would allow you to convert to any other format for posting on the web, making DVDs of family events, whatever. The most simple idea for you to send video to the Grandparents would be a DVD camcorder, but you'd probably want to make a copy of the DVD before sending them off anyway wouldn't you? Whatever you decide, I'd also invest in a DVD burner for the home pc, they are very cheap now, you can pick up top notch burners for less than $50 from places like newegg.com.

[Blancofan1]

there is a decent albeit not overly great or fancy digital camcorder on sellout.woot.com today for $99.99. don't know a lot about them, but seems like a pretty good deal, I would just suggest reading the comments section and putting in a little research first

[Fatter than Joey]

Hard Disk

JVC GZ-MG730

JVC GZ-MG155

 

I ended up getting a JVC GZ-MG330 -- I found one at Wal-Mart for $149. -- It has an incredible picture for what I have seen from camcorders.

[TheCrew07]

I was just coming back here to tell you not to buy the DVD kind, we had to buy one for scouting (our main Camera we film games with had to go in for reprair, so the DV scouting camcorder is the camera for the time being) and the DVDs won't play in a regular DVD player because they are created using a different streaming format. I was totally unaware, I have to convert them to AVIs before I can use them. I'm glad you didn't take my advice, I would have felt pretty bad after what I found out last night.

[GAME05]

wanted to revive this thread because now i'm also looking for a camcorder and am lost in a sea of product specs and reviews that don't say anything.

 

I'm looking for something in the $500 range, which seems to be about the minimum for what i'm looking for. basically, i'm going to be shooting for a couple months in Alaska and then editing it down to make a movie to send friends, family and others, so picture quality is paramount and stuff like weight or advanced features don't really matter. High Def would be awesome, and then flash memory probably would be easiest.

 

i was about to get something like the Canon HF20 until i read that even though it shoots in HD, it only downloads to a computer in standard jpeg resolution. i've been looking at some Panasonics like the TM55 or the SD10K, but then i keep hearing that Canon has the best picture quality.

 

thanks for any help.

[TheCrew07]

Unfortunately I no longer have a consumer reports subscription.

 

However if you're going to be shooting quite a bit of video then the weight and how the camcorder fits in your hard will be very important in the end. The more comfortable the camcorder is, the steadier you will be able to hold camera while shooting video, which will ultimately lead to better picture quality. While almost all modern camcorders correct for "sea sickness", there's only so much they can do, and there is nothing worse than watching video that doesn't stay relatively centered.

 

This should be a good resource for you.

[GAME05]

thanks Crew.

 

i've been researching this quite a lot for the past few days, and it struck me that i'm probably talking about fairly minor differences when it comes to similarly-priced camcorders, so i just picked one. found a Consumer Reports review that basically gave a JVC one an "eh," but based on it being $700. it retails for around $550 now and i just found it online for $400.

 

about zero use for a camcorder after the trip, though. i take it you pretty much have to have a baby to get any use out of one.

[nohopspanther]

I bought the Canon HF20 last fall and the picture and sound are absolutely awesome. The biggest problem is my laptop is now vastly underpowered to process the files efficiently and I had to buy an aftermarket program to Format HD dvd's.

[Diskono]

Entry-level DSLRs can do video now, so that might be an option. Video quality on those would probably be much better than anything else in the price range, but the downside is that they can't autofocus or meter, and I believe you can only do about 5 minutes of video at a time. Depending on how far away your subjects are, autofocus might night be an issue.

[Diskono]

Entry-level DSLRs can do video now, so that might be an option. Video quality on those would probably be much better than anything else in the price range, but the downside is that they can't autofocus or meter, and I believe you can only do about 5 minutes of video at a time. Depending on how far away your subjects are, autofocus might night be an issue.

[JoeHova]

I don't know much about camcorders but I have a consumer reports subscription so I thought I'd look into it for you.

 

Their highest rated HD camcorders in your price range of around $500 are:

 

Canon Vixia HF200- $550. They give it a "very good" in picture quality, ease of use and image stability and a "good" in low-light picture quality and audio quality. They gave this a "Recommended" rating. It has a 15x optical zoom, a 2.7 inch lcd screen and 60 minutes of battery life. It also has a built-in light and a microphone jack. It weighs 1 pound.

 

Sony HDR-CX100- $430. They give it an "excellent" in picture stability, a "very good" in picture quality, a "good" in low-light picture quality, and "fair" in ease of use and audio quality. They gave this a "Best Buy" rating. It has a 10x optical zoom, a 2.7 inch lcd screen and 90 minutes of battery life. It weighs .73 pounds.

 

Both models record on flash memory and they were the 2 "best values" among HD flash memory models. The Canon was rated slightly higher overall.