Camcorders

[piersk]

I'm thinking of buying a camcorder for when I go on holiday this summer. They're relatively inexpensive and thought it would be fun.

The only problem is that it used to be just mini-dv, but now there's HD and DVD ones too.

So whats the difference between the three media types? Can anyone recommend a brand/model?

[stolzyboy]

i plan on buying Sanyo's HD one, it's a great recorder, takes stills at great resolution WHILE you are videoing...

it uses SD cards for storage and those are getting really cheap nowadays

this is the newest version of it, but there are a couple: http://www.sanyo-dsc.com/english/products/vpc_hd2/index.html

[EPJS]

Mines a couple of years old, it's a Sony Handycam Digital8. Video quality is great. It can take stills, directly on the tape at a resolution of 640x480. While this is by no means outstanding, it is average for tape only camcorders. And it's easy to transfer the stills to your computer.

[piersk]

Not really bothered about the stills. I have a perfectly good digital camera for that. Whats the quality of the film like? And is there any difference between mini-dv, HD ad DVD cameras?

[EPJS]

Well in my opinion, Digital8 has better quality than Mini-DV.

Not sure about the others, I've never seen the quality of either, so I can't comment.

[stolzyboy]

the quality of the HD recorder, well, it's in HD, so high definition :P i know you were asking EPJS... but i wanted to throw a jab at ya :)

the DVD cameras make DVDs while you are recording whereas the one i posted records to a SD card...

also, you say you are not bothered by stills... BUT, you will find a time when you are recording where you want a still and obviously you are recording and don't have your digicam in hand...

also, i wouldn't bother with a NON HD digirecorder the way things are doing... i have HD TV's in my house and that's what i want to record with...

[pohopo]

I have a Sony Camcorder with a built in Hard Drive and it is great. 4+ hours of recording and each file is an mpg file that will play on your comuter. No need to rewind/fast forward to find what you are looking for either. The down side is it is not HD and I would say the quality is comparable to DVD recorders.

This is where i did all my research for camcorders. They are pretty objective in their reviews...

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/