I hope this isn't deemed off topic, I suppose a camcorder could be classed as home entertainment equipment

I'm looking at buying our first camcorder and am bewildered by the choice out there. I'm tempted by a Hard Disk recorder, but the girl I spoke to in Jessops earlier told me that tapes give a superior picture quality than DVD, Mini DV or Hard disk camcorders. Is this correct, or are Jessops hoping to profit from the consumables from non hard disk models?

She also told me that 3xCCD was a gimmick exclusive to Panasonic, which I know not to be true so really have to question everything she told me.

Incidentally, can anyone tell me what the difference in picture quality is between a device with a single CCD and one with 3? Is it worth the extra money?

Thanks in advance,
Me4

Its true, with dvd camcorders your basically paying for the dvd loading / recording mechinisms and they cheap out on the CCD / picture quality. MiniDV is as good as its going to get (even sonys FX1 High Definition camcorder uses minidv).
Yep. Its the difference between watching a greyish blurr and decent videos!

-Chris

Maybe just a tad overstated I think!

On this subject, anyone know of an HDD camera with a DV (firewire) output rather than USB? I want to dub to an HDD/DVD recorder not a PC.

I spent six months researching camcorders prior to September this year.

Tell me what you want to do with the camcorder. Keep it very basic and we'll have a dialogue so I can help you to narrow down the choices.

I won't say what I bought at this stage.

Thanks Rhubarbe. We've got our first baby on the way so if I'm honest the mail reason for the camcorder is to record the early moments of him or her, and be able to send footage to family that are scattered throughout the country and beyond.

Image quality and ease of transferring to PC --> DVD (or web) are the main features I'm looking for.

I don't care about stills, I have a DSLR for that.

As for budget, that depends on who you talk to. My wife is looking to spend £200-£300, I'm, happy to spend more if the features justify it.

OK. What about portability?

Portability? At the risk of sounding stupid, it has to be portable

The smaller/lighter the better, as my photography kit is growing steadily and I'd like to minimise the additional weight that I'll be lugging around

One other thing... some of the camcorders I've seen have all/most of the options off a GUI menu. One camera I had hold of (I can't remember the make) you had to invoke 'night mode' via a complicated menu option, and I'd rather have a solution where you can select this by pressing a button/throwing a switch.

OK, well let me take you through my thoughts. I wanted light as possible; I had searched for a digital camera a couple of years before because my SLR was so big I'd never have it with me and thus shot no film. Unfortunately, by the time I decided I had read so many specs that I ended up buying based on that rather than need and finished with a digicam that was bigger than the SLR I was replacing. Consequently, I was determined not to repeat this mistake. More in a minute..

This time round I was determined to avoid making the same mistake again. I had read about HDD camcorders, DVD camcorders, DV and HD camcorders but I didn't know which would suit me.

I was put off mini DV fro the outset because it required to be transfrerred to PC in real time via firewire I just knew that after the novelty had worn off I would find it a fag to bother.

DVD I thought were really too bulkynand picture quality was compromised by the compression to mepg.

I found a little Hi Def (HD) camcorder - a Sanyo Xacti HD1 (Sanyo of all people) that recored mpeg-4 to SD card and this was tiny, looked great and some of the sample video I saw from it blew me away. However, all the samples I saw had used a tripod and I read that the EIS with the Sanyo isn't up to much. More..

I quite liked the idea of HD, so I next looked at the Sony HDR-HC3; brilliant camcorder but I thought a bit to big to carry around all the time - I made myself a model of it with a coke tin and a pack of cards. Quite soon I was thinking to myself, "I'm not taking that big hting with me today." So, that failed the test. If I am honest the DV tape thing again also put me off but I did like the idea of maintaining a permanent backup on the original tape and especially being able to play it back on an HDTV straight from the camcorder via HDMI. This was and would be the camcorder I'd buy if the one I bought hadn't been available. More..

I looked at the JVC range, starting with the tiny MC-500 which I rejected because it had far too small an LCD (1.8"). The MG-505, it's replacement, has very good reviews but I didn't like the fact that it had a separate lens cap - how silly of me.

In the end I found a tiny 3CCD camcorder that weighs just 260 grammes, records to SD card in mpeg-2 so that I can simply bung the SD card into a reader and it transfers to my PC at the speed of USB2. the video quality brilliant, low level performance is fine, it has a nice big 2.8" LCD, and I can even carry it around in my jacket pocket. The batteries don't last long - about 45 minutes - but you can buy pattern batteries on eBay for next to nowt, and you can only get 25 minutes video onto a 2GB SD card at highest quality, though they're cheap enough, you could use a tank like I do and 50 minutes at standard doesn't look that much different on a TV.

That was a Panasonic SDR-S150 and I heartily recommend it.

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content...der-Review.htm

T'ain't cheap, though.
Last edited by rhubarbe : 04-11-2006 at 00:55

Thanks for all the advice rhubarbe. This really does help. I don't know if I can justify £600 for the Panasonic SDR-S150, but it certainly ticks most other boxes for me, apart from maybe the 25 min limitation with a 2Gb SD card. I don't know if I could be bothered to 'empty' the card(s) as they filled up.

Your advice has pinpointed my dilemma here, it's the convenience of a HDD camera vs. 3xCCD picture quality vs. a limited budget.

Time for some more research methinks.

Thanks again for your advice. You proved once again what a quality forum DS is. I'll let you know what I end up buying.

Cheers,
Me4.

Well, I have three 2GB SD cards (and you can now get a 4GB SDHC card but it's pricey) so I get 75 mnutes before I have to move them into my Jobo Giga One. I appreciate what you say but if you drop an SD card, unlike a HDD it's going to survive the day.

Just when I had it [sort of] straight in my mind!

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content...der-Review.htm
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content...der-Review.htm

OK, these are cheaper (as long as you shop Internet and not UK High St). Both are mini-dv and both are highly rated. I looked at both of these while I was waiting for the SDR-S150 to come into stock in Germany where I bought mine from.

The problem is that there are no HDD camcoders under £600 that produce brilliant video. DVD camcorders maybe slightly cheaper but huge and the comression artifacts will annoy you.

At the end of the day I suppose that any video of momentous events in our lives is better than no video at all, though if you have the choice.

Remember, tiny is best! Tonight we go to our local fireworks display; I never took a stills camera, and I would no way lug a normal sized camcorder around with me either, but the SDR-S150 now, that fits in my pocket, weighs eight ounces andmost of the time I wouldn't even know I had it with me.