Hi all,

Sorry my first post is one asking for help...

I am in the market for a camcorder. I have never owned one before. I have used one twice!!

I have just had a child and want to buy a camcorder for no more than £300. Im going to use it for family stuff. Birthdays, holidays.. the usual boring stuff. I have a decent digital camera so dont really need the still function (but as I have read its a usual perk of the camcorders).

I'm caught between what format to use as well (no suprise there) from what I can see its either going to be a HDD or Mini Dv but... I must say I like the idea of popping a dvd into my drive and reading it!

I dont really mind on the brand name. Even if there are used camcorders that would be a good buy for me to look out for.

I had been looking at a Sony 60GB HDD DCR-SR72E.

Thanks

What type of camcorder did you use twice before? Was it easy to use, did it produce good pictures and sound and did you just watch back the video or did you do any editing on it? If you intend to do editing (almost everyone does at some stage whether it takes a month or six months) then I would suggest Mini DV tape format but if you can't see yourself doing any editing then maybe Mini DVD is what you should go for. It's a case of record the event, take the disc out and insert it into your dvd player and that's it. It's something you need to think over before making a final decision.

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Better than a poke in the eye with a pointy stick any day...

is hdd or dvd really so bad for editing? i expected it to be much more straight forward - the capturing from tape doesn't appeal at all..

reading other posts on this forum it seems that HDD is not the way to go if you want to edit.. but i'm kind of disappointed that that is the case!

Mini DVD and Hard Disc camcorders are for point and shoot enthusiasts, I'm sorry but I have to say it. Mini DV tape based camcorders have a long proven track record of producing great looking video and the file format is of a much higher quality to start with. Mini DVD and Hard Disc files have too much compression applied to them, so you are starting off with a lower quality to begin with. It's fine if all you want to do is playback your recordings on your home dvd player or post them on the net. However if you want to do editing then get a Mini DV tape based camcorder and save yourself a lot of trouble. If you have the money to buy a High Definition camcorder, you are looking at £2000 plus to get a real Hi Def camcorder then that is the way to go.

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Better than a poke in the eye with a pointy stick any day...

I must say I feel the same way that the hdd should be easier but as Nicosony says if you want to go HDD and keep the quality spend £2k :O

Thanks Nico for your replies. Some great infor there.

The one I used twice is an old HI8 camera and it was easy peasy point and shoot.
I will be doing video editing and have a fairly powerfull computer so it should be able to handle it although another 2 gig of memory wont go a miss as I hear Video editing uses alot of memory.

Why is editing a HDD or Mini Dvd so hard ?

Hi,

I have pretty much decided on the Panasonic GS-330. My only problem is that I am worried about the quality issue when watching through my HDtv ?
Should I be going HD camcorder or is the £300 budget I have best spent on the GS330 being a good quality Mini DV cam ?

You won't get a High Definition camcorder for £300, you'll need at least £2000 to get one of those. That Mini DV model will give you very good pictures even on a HD tv even though the camcorder itself isn't HD.

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Better than a poke in the eye with a pointy stick any day...