upgrading to digital

mrcrow · #1 (**permalink**) 10-12-2006, 03:15 PM

another newbie here...our old sony hi-8..our second..is now getting too old and unwieldy for my wife so we are going to get a new digital camcorder
i see there are ones with hard drives built in and without
i anticipate we may film more than 7-9 hours on a 14 day trip to nepal so i am thinking the hard drive model may not be suitable..
we need to start somewhere on the market and fixed around £400 for a cam
we need a look through viewfinder not just a screen

later i will need to query editing software as we only have an edit deck for VHS

my external hard drive is 80GB and a spare on on the pc is 40GB...

hopefully without asking too much too soon i will learn quicker

cheers

mrcrow
manchester

Mark W · #2 (**permalink**) 10-12-2006, 05:11 PM

Whatever you get make sure os is a DV camera, records onto little tapes. Avoid hd and disc models - lower quality, fiddly to edit.

As for your pc, the faster the better, and you may need bigger drives. It wont need to be super fast, anything around / above a 2 gig pentium should be fine, and befor anyone starts howling, I spent 2 years editing on an xp1700 and it was just fine and dandy.

Evereddie · #3 (**permalink**) 10-12-2006, 05:34 PM

If you want to edit there is no other choice but mini-dv as said right abouv me.

mrcrow · #4 (**permalink**) 10-12-2006, 05:55 PM

Originally Posted by Mark W

Whatever you get make sure os is a DV camera, records onto little tapes. Avoid hd and disc models - lower quality, fiddly to edit.

As for your pc, the faster the better, and you may need bigger drives. It wont need to be super fast, anything around / above a 2 gig pentium should be fine, and befor anyone starts howling, I spent 2 years editing on an xp1700 and it was just fine and dandy.

cheers..thats one step at a time good information...DV...got it

my pc is an athlon 1200 with 256 RAM...40Gb on C: and D: which is my data backup and external HD 80:Gb in a caddy which i could upgrade to 300 if necessary....but it sounds like the processor is too small...this pc is 4 years old...
and i may have to get a faster one???..guessing here

most grateful mark..cheers

mrcrow · #5 (**permalink**) 10-12-2006, 05:56 PM

Originally Posted by Evereddie

If you want to edit there is no other choice but mini-dv as said right abouv me.

thanks evereddie...got the message now..and can start browsing for a £400'ish dv one..

any further comments on my pc spec...re: athlon 1200

thanks..
geof

Mark W · #6 (**permalink**) 10-12-2006, 06:11 PM

Athlon 1200 may be pushing things a bit - not sure really. If you can I would advise a better pc, but if that isnt an option then try downloading some free trials of the popular packages and see how they run.

In a perfect world we would all have super duper pcs, but it sure aint a perfect world.

Some trials here : http://www.videoforums.co.uk/reviews...16_sectionid/3

mrcrow · #7 (**permalink**) 10-12-2006, 07:04 PM

Originally Posted by Mark W

Athlon 1200 may be pushing things a bit - not sure really. If you can I would advise a better pc, but if that isnt an option then try downloading some free trials of the popular packages and see how they run.

In a perfect world we would all have super duper pcs, but it sure aint a perfect world.

Some trials here : http://www.videoforums.co.uk/reviews...16_sectionid/3

thanks..i could get another pc as mine is a bit slow..i use firefox and it eats up the processing space...and i do want a slim line monitor...
thanks for the link and i now see...on pixmania..loads of mini dv camcorders at prices to suit...
one point my wife asked me...are mini dv tape machines..'older' in their design and may be superceded by dvd and hd types... i think she is asking because there is only one hi-8 on the market now and we bought wben it was bees knees...etc..
i do see however the mini dv machines seem more compact...and if they are the ones for editing then that is our bag..

many thanks again...my daughter lives in bristol...we are ex burnham on sea..sort of..
cheers
geof
manchester

yeebsy · #8 (**permalink**) 10-12-2006, 08:46 PM

Don't worry, Mini DV is not being superceded by DVD cameras etc, in fact Mini DV will still be around when there are no more DVD cameras.

As for a camera check this. I have the little brother to this and the picture quality is second to none and is on par with my big canon camera.
http://www.purelygadgets.co.uk/showp...hp?prodid=1679

Well within theprice range and will leave somecash for the tapes.

mrcrow · #9 (**permalink**) 10-12-2006, 09:02 PM

Originally Posted by yeebsy

Don't worry, Mini DV is not being superceded by DVD cameras etc, in fact Mini DV will still be around when there are no more DVD cameras.

As for a camera check this. I have the little brother to this and the picture quality is second to none and is on par with my big canon camera.
http://www.purelygadgets.co.uk/showp...hp?prodid=1679

Well within theprice range and will leave somecash for the tapes.

brill...a few hours and some well given advice and i am on track...the panasonic appeals to me regarding the leitz lenses...

thanks again
geof
manchester

mrcrow · #10 (**permalink**) 11-16-2006, 12:00 PM

ordered a sony DCR-HC96E and some sony premium tapes

i have been told the pinnacle studio 10.6 is a good suite for editing...

any comments...

and i will have to get a bigger boat!!!
athlon 1200 etc i dont think will work..

we will have to get our VHS masters onto DVD...what's the way to do this..i have an edit deck with scart and phono outlets...can that be fed into the pc or do i need a dedicated machine to do it..
its all getting a bit complicated
:(