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Buying a camcorder - Need some basic advice


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Old 16-10-2006, 13:27
johngkelly
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Hi, I would like to buy a camcorder primarily to take some footage of our 7-month old son while he is still a baby!

It needs to be relatively small and light and easy to use as we're not hugely technical!
From what I've researched a Mini DV seems to be the most suitable as I'm happy to hook the camera up to the TV to show tapes to family etc.
I assume it's fairly straightforward to connect to PC if I wanted to burn onto CD?
I'm thinking of getting the Sony DCR-HC24E Handycam MiniDV Camcorder [20x Optical Zoom]
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...r-21/ref=nosim
as Sony seem to be recommended and at £170 ish it's the most popular in my budget though I'd be willing to spend a little bit more if I thought it was necessary.
Any advice or recommendations appreciated.
John
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Old 16-10-2006, 13:36
papadontpreach
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Yes this would be fine for just that and mini dv is a stable format, However for an extra £70 you may want to think od a DVD Camcorder,

that way you dont have to fast forward or rewind to get to certain bits, as each time you record a piece it is saved as a thumbnail on the menu page.

Plus you dont have to mess around saving it to a cd on your computer as a VCD and lose quality, just stick it in your DVD player.


I think jessops are selling Hitachi DVD Cams for around £250. but there are others available
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Old 16-10-2006, 14:02
johngkelly
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Thanks for your reply. Do you have a specific one in mind you could point me to. My only worry about a DVD camcorder is that it would be larger and heavier and wouldn't get used as much, though that could be a misconception on my part.
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Old 16-10-2006, 14:49
Chorlton Fisher
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There's loads here... http://www.empiredirect.co.uk/conten...e=1&order=pAsc
They are no bigger than MiniDV cameras because they use 8cm DVDs.
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Old 16-10-2006, 15:20
johngkelly
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Oh, I'm confused now. D you think that DVD recorders are the way to go in future? I guesss it makes it easier to store etc?
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Old 16-10-2006, 22:31
ntlhellworld
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Originally Posted by johngkelly
Oh, I'm confused now. D you think that DVD recorders are the way to go in future? I guesss it makes it easier to store etc?
Avoid DVD camcorders. The money goes towards the intergration of a DVD burner / loading mechinisms, etc, and they cheap out on the camara & lens quality.

Minidv is a tried and tested technology that works, even the £2grand sony high definiton FX1 camara uses minidv tapes. Carnt go wrong.

-Chris
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Old 17-10-2006, 21:50
johngkelly
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Thanks, Having done some more research, I think I will stick with the Mini DV.
Could somebody confirm that if I buy a DVD recorder it is very simple to transfer from DV Tape to DVD, ie you simply connect the camera to the TV and record on the DVD?

Also, all the websites selling the cameras list a whole pile of other chargers and batteries and cases, do i really need any of those?
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Old 18-10-2006, 09:23
Dave 8o]
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Originally Posted by ntlhellworld
Avoid DVD camcorders. The money goes towards the intergration of a DVD burner / loading mechinisms, etc, and they cheap out on the camara & lens quality.

Minidv is a tried and tested technology that works, even the £2grand sony high definiton FX1 camara uses minidv tapes. Carnt go wrong.

-Chris
I quite agree, Mini DV is the way to go. No matter how good you are at filming, you will always endup filming stuff you don't want to keep. I think it's a lot better to play a Mini DV recording into a PC, edit it, add titles, music and commentry etc. then burn the finished film to DVD, than to take a finished 8cm, DVD out of the camcorder and play it on the TV warts and all.

My brother has been using one to film his daughter and I've been editing it for him. Once piece of advice I would give, don't film hour upon hour of baby sat cooing, it's boring. Film the interaction between you and baby: feeding, play, bathtime etc. ad do it in shortish bits. While you could probably stand to watch hour upon hour of baby doing nothing much, most other people will be reachig for the pills after the fist half hour..


Good luck.

Last edited by Dave 8o] : 18-10-2006 at 09:25.
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Old 18-10-2006, 17:41
squidney
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I would say it would be better to load up to PC and edit as Dave 80 said - but if you don't want to go that route and want to record straight to DVD recorder, try to get a DVD recorder with FIREWIRE in - that is the best way to connect the camera to recorder as it transfers everything digitally without loss of quality. You could then do some basic editing using the DVD recorder -i.e. simply erase scenes you don't want, but obviously this way you wouldn't have the facility to add music/effects/commentry and titles etc.
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