Hi all,
First post... and I'm after your advice & tips.

I'm getting married in a month & my parents are getting me a camcorder as our wedding present.

The budget is up to £400. The Sony DCR-DVD203E (empiredirect.co.uk £399.49) has caught my eye.

It'll be used for amateur stuff, capture family holidays, etc.

My questions are really...
Is this Cam any good? Any others to look at in that price range?
Are there any disadvantages (or advantages) to the DVD format?

And one last question... My folks live in Canada (I live in the UK). Would they be better getting the cam there or here? It would presumably be cheaper there (everything seems to be cheaper there!!) but are there any pitfalls to watch out for?

Thanks for your help...

Pep

Unless you really have to havew the convenieince of recoroing direct to dvd I would avoid dvd camcorders. They record at a lower quality and have been reported to drop frames more often than dv. Others amy disagree, personal opinion.

Hi Pep!

Congratulations on your forthcoming wedding

Anyway, there are two potential problems with your suggestions.

1 - like Mark says, DVD camcorders are essentially rubbish. The quality isn't anywhere as near as good as DV tape, and if you want to edit it, although there are workarounds, it will be really fiddly and the quality will degrade even more.

2 - Although camcorders are cheaper in Canada, they also use the NTSC video format over there instead of the PAL format they use over here, so that's a no-no as well I'm afraid :-/

As for what to look for in that price range, I really don't know. There are so, so, so many camcorders out there I wouldn't know where to start. I'm a fan of the Canon range myself though.

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Hi,
And thanks for all your advice so far…
Having read up a bit more I’ve been swayed towards miniDV as the format for me.

That out the way I’ve been looking at which one to go for. For my budget, which is up to £400, the Sony DCR-HC 42 looks good. Anyone any good or bad thoughts on this model?

Thanks,
Pep

I think there are some 3 chip models around that price, they give better video quality. I would go for a 3 chip but I am sure the sony would be great too.