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Scott Tharpe
01-22-2007, 07:39 AM
In the market for a new Camcorder. Anybody have any opinions/experience with MiniDVD vs Harddrive units. Looking in the $4-$500.00 range. Currently looking and Panasonic and JVC. Whose got the best deals on this type of item? Any and all info greatly appreciated. Thanks Scott

Fish
01-22-2007, 08:12 AM
Scott, I just went through the same thing. I found a site with some great info. It totally confused me for a while since I had no idea how many things I wanted or did not want, but was eventually able to narrow it down to a few choices. I did not find exactly the camera I wanted but did find something in the same price range that suited my needs- wanted mini dv over disk or hard drive, wanted to be able to hook up an external lipstick camera to mount in my boat, wanted external mic source to record from boat without wind noise, ability to take digital stills, long battery life and low light.

I am happy with my cannon elura 100 so far. Have not tried the external hook ups yet, but the few times I ahve used it I am pleased withthe results.

Check out this site, figure out what you need and can do without, and make a choice. http://www.camcorderinfo.com/ Like I said, some of it is from late 2005 and early 2006 so there may be some new advances.

good luck,

fish

Hydrovector
01-22-2007, 08:14 AM
I got a Sony 30gig hard drive camcorder DCR-SR40 599.00 to replace my 8mm Sony.
I am still getting used to it. I records good but it is the transfer to the computer that takes getting used to. I did record a snow cross race two weeks ago here in Brainerd with the temperature in the 0° range and had no problems recording with it. I just wish I had spent more for the next camera that was in the 700.00-dollar figure. It had more features that would have been nice to like a remote control. The other thing that takes time to get used to is no viewfinder only the 2.5" screen. However, it does work pretty well in the bright sun light. We took it on our cruise to the Bahamas and I have only one time that I could not see the screen because of bright sun. Should add too that it's nice to be able to switch from movie to still shots even though they are only 1 meg pictures they do come out pretty good. So you only have to carry one camera if you want.

hsbob
01-22-2007, 10:11 AM
for use on moving boats you need a optical stablized lens [ not digitally stab]. they cost a little bit more but the cost is really worth it. otherwise the picture will be jumpy and hard to watch.

Scott Tharpe
01-23-2007, 04:28 PM
Thanks for the info.

Fish, What do they call the option for being able to hook up the lipstick camera to your unit?

Hydro, A buddy of mine told me to be careful of the harddrive units for the very same reason of downloading to the computer. Could be tricky or maybe even have to reformat. Have you figured it out yet or is it still a pain in the arse?

hsbob, all I've looked at say electronic stability feture but dont really refer to it being either digital or optical. How can I futher investigate this option on a particular unit. I don't know chit about the digital world lingo. Thanks Again Scott

The Big Al
01-23-2007, 05:03 PM
I have enjoyed my Canon Optura 50
(recommend by Greg)

And Canon is easy operation and downloading is plug and play.

Al

Scott Tharpe
02-27-2007, 08:37 AM
I think I've narrowed it down to two. One JVc and one Sony. Both are hard drive camcorders. Leaning toward the sony for the lens.One question I have is the ability to add a small lipstick/helmut cam to this camcorder. Both have A/V INPUTS so is it possible to do this? I don't recongnize the type if input port it has but that don't mean anything. Can someone enlighten me on this? Thanks Again Scott

Fish
02-27-2007, 08:46 AM
Scott,
My mom has the sony harddrive camcorder and it takes great video, but the software that comes with it makes it difficult to move it to the harddrive and use it just as a video file. I don't remeber a lot about it, just that it wants to do some artsy fartsy compilation thing, and uses its typical sony proprietary crap that has turned me away from sony after many years of being a loyal customer. You are right though, the carl zeiss lens' are great.

As for the lipstick camera thing, your best bet is to send osprepproduction (Lee) a pm. He uses a bunch of different ones in his business and is the one that first got me intersted in them. He will be able to steer you in the right direction and probably have a lot of good advice having been there and done that with these cameras.

Scott Tharpe
02-27-2007, 12:16 PM
Thanks Fish. Will Do.

Scream And Fly
02-28-2007, 03:14 AM
Scott,

If you plan on doing a lot of video editing and possibly writing to DVD, you may not want a hard disk camcorder. The hard disk camcorders write in a compressed format (usually MPEG 4), which is alright for general use, but not great for editing.

Just something to keep in mind. :)

Greg

Scott Tharpe
02-28-2007, 09:10 AM
All this is chinese to me so you'll have to break it down for me. When you say "hard disc" are you referring to what they call hard drive vs mini dvd? Also when you say editing, is that just removing unwanted footage? Sorry to be so elementary on this but trying to learn. Also will I be alright for the bullet cam as long as the camcorder has ANY TYPE of A/V input. I'm finding some analog and some digital inputs. It seems this wasn't a problem with the miniDV but not as common in the miniDVD and Hard Drive units.OR should I just consider a totally seperate unit for the boat/YZ450F and buy one of those complete helmet units like sony and some of the others have. I think the highest resolution is like 520 on these. I'm primarily buying this because of my new addition to the family but you always have to take advantage of anything that can make the boating more exciting. Thanks for all the info Scott.

hsbob
03-13-2007, 10:14 AM
normally you edit a avi file. the meg4 is a highly compress avi[ eg you loss information usually color] you really need a dvi tape camera that records in the avi format and also has optical stablization. the shakes from a boat make the normal vedio unusable. electronic stablization helps a little, but optical does a better job. i use a canon opti with a 10x optical stablization. it does a great job. but it did cost 1200, 5 years ago.

whipper
03-21-2007, 12:40 AM
I just came across the one.It has all the stuff and cheap. 4 meg stills, in a video camera!!! The new canon powershot tx1,optical steady shot two 499!! Available next week.

hsbob
03-21-2007, 12:25 PM
only question i would have is ; does it have progressive scan. when you do movies the interlaced effect is not noticable because the picture is moving. but for stills the odd and even lines are recorded at different time by a fraction of a second. this leads to seamingly out of pictures.