Green Newbie! helping to choose

vichenec · #1 (**permalink**) 12-29-2007, 03:40 PM

Would like to buy a camcorder have about 250-300£
For amateur filming and family life... i would prefer to buy a HDD camcorder because of easiness of video transfer (although i never used tape camcorders, may be it is as fast?)...
Found out these two camcorders Sony DCR-SR52, SR32.
Any comments and suggestions?

Nikosony · #2 (**permalink**) 12-29-2007, 09:20 PM

Are you planning on editing your movies once you've shot them?

vichenec · #3 (**permalink**) 12-29-2007, 11:55 PM

Yeah i am!

MK07 Productions · #4 (**permalink**) 12-31-2007, 01:55 AM

if your going to edit the videos then you will want a MiniDV camcorder.

This is a great deal and iv also just ordered one !

http://www.empiredirect.co.uk/content/products/details/index~modelcode~SON-DCRHC27.htm

vichenec · #5 (**permalink**) 12-31-2007, 05:46 PM

Well on Amazon.co.uk this is one of the cheapest... and what about Video editing? MiniDv... is it easy to transfer video from camera to PC?
I thought HDD is the easiest way, but as far as i can see in this price range the quality of the video of HDD camera's are not that good(?)...

BTW... What is better in video quality HDD or Tapes?

What about this one? specifications are pretty good for the price...
Panasonic NV-GS230EB-S

MK07 Productions · #6 (**permalink**) 12-31-2007, 06:22 PM

Tapes are better.

Nikosony · #7 (**permalink**) 01-01-2008, 10:01 PM

Of all the formats in the SD video range, the Mini DV camcorders imho give the best picture and sound quality. They are also the easiest to connect up to a computer with a Firewire socket and all of the current editing programs work well with them, compared to HDD and Mini DVD. That Panasonic, the 230, also has 3CCD's in it and I was looking at that one myself recently as a small cam to take on holiday, it's a pity it's only got a 10 x optical zoom on it.

marty · #8 (**permalink**) 01-09-2008, 07:19 PM

Originally Posted by vichenec

i would prefer to buy a HDD camcorder because of easiness of video transfer (although i never used tape camcorders, may be it is as fast?)...

You should definitely choose a hdd camcorder. Never a minidv, although it's cheaper. Tape cameras make lots of problems.

marty · #9 (**permalink**) 01-09-2008, 07:21 PM

Originally Posted by MK07 Productions

Tapes are better.

With tapes you'll have a lot of headaches.

Nikosony · #10 (**permalink**) 01-10-2008, 02:53 PM

And what about when he tries to edit his mpeg movies in any of the popular video editors, I could have sworn I read dozens of horror stories from users who were conned into buying HDD camcorders on this very forum, but then again maybe I imagined it? How will tape give you a lot of headaches? Also the quality of video on a HDD camcorder (and Mini DVD) is not as high as that shot on a Mini DV camcorder, so you are starting out with lower quality, then editing it and then making dvd's which are also in mpeg format. Mpeg is a format that is used as a delivery method at the end of the process, it's better to start out with DV AVI if you can.