7 replies to this topic

[sourskttles772]

I like to film things and I am pretty interested in camcorders. I recently bought a dvd camcorder for cheap and was very displeased with it. So I sold it. Though my mom has a very nice dvd camcorder and works great

I am looking for one with good video quality. Not HD
Easy to transfer to the computer
Easy to edit
Some what small... Or just not big
Not to expensive


Any ideas

[OfAllTheNerf]

Well, if you want easy transfer etc., you might want to look into the camcorders that are made specifically for sharing on the web. They upload into MPEG4 for youtube and such. Sorry, I can't post a link (Im on my phone).

[bogboogalars]

Sorry, off topic but what kind of phone?

[sourskttles772]

Hmm. I think ill pass on those kind. Only because I think almost all of them record on flash memory. And that can be expensive and not last very long. Thanks anyway.

[shadowkid33]

I have a Canon Elura 100, but that model is a few years old. If you can find it, it should be cheap because it's not the 'newest' model, but it's a great camcorder. I think I got it for 350-400 brand new two years ago, it has 1 CCD chip(as with most stuff you'll find in this pricerange), and it records onto MiniDV tapes.

I use Magix Movie Edit Pro as an editing software and I highly recommend that. But, if you're looking for something with a bit more functionality, go for Sony Vegas. I use it in school all the time.

[sourskttles772]

Thanks shadowkid that helped.

[Richomundo]

You can get a solid 3 ccd camera for under $500 now that fits in your hand.

MiniDV is great quality. Canon, Panasonic, JVC are all quality brands that are backed up with a manufacturers warranty.

Keep in mind that in the technology sector, 6 months of real time = 1 year of technology time. Kinda like dog years, but computer years.

as in, a new computer model is released about every 6 months, this applies to other technologies as well (phones / camcorders / digicams / etc)

Only pay attention to optical zoom. Digital zoom means absolutely nothing.

http://www.newegg.co...name=Camcorders

there's a link to newegg camcorders. I find newegg has the more competitive prices with the best customer service and fastest shipping times.


http://www.newegg.co...N82E16830120092
$200 for a canon single chip.

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16830180135
oh cool
$400 waterproof up to 5 feet

Edited by Richomundo, 27 March 2008 - 09:13 PM.

[Ambience 327]

Only pay attention to optical zoom. Digital zoom means absolutely nothing.

In case that confused anyone, what he means is that the optical zoom is practical, it can actually get you a better shot by using the camera's optics to clearly zoom in on more distant objects. The optical zoom just takes the image being fed to the camera's computer and blows it up like you would an image in paint - it simply resizes the pixels of the image. This is useless because you can do this later (in the editing stage) without risking missing important details in the shot (having finer control and generally a better final look).

Digital zoom is just one of those "features" that companies throw in their cameras for amateurs to toy around with and get all googly-eyed over, even though they are actually not worth using. (Similar features are things like "black & white" or "sepia" mode, "old movie" mode, etc. that can be easily, and often better, created in editing software without limiting what you can do with your footage once it is shot.)


Just thought I'd throw that out there in case anybody thought to themselves "what?".