I was looking to see if anyone could help me. I want to know what kind of camera I should get thats under around $350 and i could get good results after transfering to the computer. Also, right now I have a Dell Inspiron8250 with windowsXP home with DVD burner. I use MAGIX Movie Edit Pro 10 to edit and I was wandering what quality I would get if I used firewire to transfer it to my computer. Would it be as good quality as if I pluged the camera into the TV through A/V. One last thing is if you know of the best quality and reasonably low price Firewire card and cables?

Get a Mini DV cam as they give the best picture and sound quality. They come with a firewire port but you'll have to buy a four pin (camera) to six pin (computer) cable. Does your Dell not have a firewire port already? If not your local computer store will sell them possibly with three ports or four ports on them. You just need a spare PCI slot in your computer, make sure there is one before you buy. The quality is much better than connecting to the TV as you would be using a composite signal from the camera to the tv which is off much lower quality. 500 lines resolution for Mini DV using Firewire and around 220 lines resolution using composite. Tell us the rest of the spec on your pc?

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Yeah, thats kinda what i was going for after reading a bunch of posts. My computer ia a pentium 4 2.4GHz, 256 MB ram. I dont have a firewire port and am planing to buy one. Does it make much different between like the $50 ones and the $20 quality wise? Also, how much space does D/V take up because I am limited on disk space (maybe getting an external hard drive). And do you have any suggestions for a camera in the $300-$400 price range?

Thanks

DV uses 3.6MB/sec so for 1hour of video you'll need 13GB of disk storage.

as for firewire cables I can only speak for myself, Ibought a cheap firewire card for £10 and it included the cable and I've never had any problems.

You will probably want to add more ram to your system as well, you'll really need a minimum of 512MB but preferably 1GB. Video editing is really demanding.

Ok, thanks. What is ram? Like what does it do, is it the speed of your computer? Also, how can you increase it? Along with my previous post, is there any suggestion for camera that i could go with?

RAM stands for Random Access Memory and is the temporary storage in your computer. When you switch on it is there for you to work with your programs and files. But if you didn't save your work you would lose your files as RAM loses its contents when the computer is switched off. So that's why you have a hard disk, where all your hard work is kept. The more RAM you have the quicker your programs will start up and carry out calculations but this also depends on things like processor speed and other components. Will I mention it?....ok, you twisted my arm... FSB. I would like to suggest a camera in your price range but no I won't as I always suggest the wrong one, so I've stopped doing that. Look at the various manufacturers sites, join a few online forums and check out reviews, use or borrow a friend or work colleagues etc.

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

You can say your sugestion. I just need some input from other people who have worked with alot. Your oppinion will not effect me in a bad way.

Any suggestions?

Joey, I'd rather have all my teeth pulled out with a pair of rustly old pliers than suggest a particular camera to someone. Just in case you go out and buy it and then find out it doesn't do x or y, who's going to get the blame for it?

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

Well i don think you could get blammed as the person should check the specs first