Author Topic: Camcorders (Read 145 times)

Sandman · « **on:** January 05, 2007, 07:01:56 PM »

So... my wife is hard over for a camcorder... and she wants one that burns straight to DVD.

I've a friend that recommends miniDV and then converting the tape over to DVD later.

Thoughts?

I'm still looking and I have zero emotion invested so you know... cheap is good.

Westy · « **Reply #1 on:** January 05, 2007, 07:19:01 PM »

Did you have a camcorder before? If so what type? I ask because I have a lot of 8mm camcorder home movie tapes made over five or six years and when that 8mm camcorder died I had no way to watch them anymore - let alone use it to link to the a capture card in the PC and make home movie DVDs from the old tapes.
So we bought a Digital8 that can play and convert the old 8mm and Hi8 (as well as Digital8 of course) and while we've been making new home movies I've also been using it to help convert all the old (And new) tapes to DVD.
However once I get caught up and convert my last tape to DVD I will retire the Digital8 so that I'll have it for future use. Then I'll be in the market asking the same questions you are. So I hope you get some good advice.

Sandman · « **Reply #2 on:** January 05, 2007, 07:40:50 PM »

No... no camcorder before.

Westy · « **Reply #3 on:** January 05, 2007, 07:55:16 PM »

Roger that. Well, think about the quality of the end product. I will probably choose to go MinDV in a year or so. Although Digital8 is still a nice option. The reason is I like taking the raw video via Firewire and using a PC and software to edit and create my DVDs. I do not want a camcorder to do the conversion for me and I end up with a less quality end product. Here is a primer on differences that I found via a quick Google search. There are many others articles that more in depth. Wikipedia has some good writings to peruse.

http://www.crutchfieldadvisor.com/ISEO-rgbtcspd/learningcenter/home/camcorders.html?page=2

Good luck!

eagl · « **Reply #4 on:** January 05, 2007, 08:02:08 PM »

I saw a terrible review of one of the little camcorders that burns straight to the mini DVD discs inside the camera... basically it sucks.

mini DV seems to be the best out there. I wanted to wait for some consumer HD camcorders out there but nobody's making/selling them yet.

Get image stabilization and low-light, go for the biggest lense you can find, and look at optical zoom, not digital zoom.

If you're gonna do a lot of video editing, get one with the digital output like firewire so you can plug it straight into the computer to download the vid from the tape. Macs are awesome for this, but you want to make sure your camera works with whatever vid editing hardware you have (pc or mac, firewire vs. usb vs. analog, etc)