Buying a Video Camera?

SR77 · 12-05-06, 02:13

And I know nothing about them! Any of you gurus out there have any opinions, tips or advice on them? In lamens terms, haha. Which is a better system, the Mini DVD or the tape media? I am not looking for the cheapest or the most expensive, something maybe around $400-500 and would like the be able to take photos with it too. Leaning towards the DVD ones since that seems more user friendly for the wife, but do know much about either type. Went to Best Buy and the guy said that the Panasonic d300 one they had there was the best in that price range because it has 3CCD, but then I read a review on the internet that said they don't shoot that well indoors. Then I looked at one of the DVD Sonys but then read a reviews that the software is not compatible with Windows XP service pack 2 and will crash the PC. It is all very confusing and I just want to make the right choice the first time and not regret it, so any tips, opinions , what to look for, etc. are welcome. thanks for all the help!

hooked · 12-06-06, 06:09

If you're not the next Steven Spielberg who's going to be editing your videos to create the next masterpiece then the DVD system is probably the simplest. Just shoot, pop it into your dvd player and watch the results. Plus it's easier/faster to fast forward/reverse since you don't have to deal with going back on forth with tape. The drawbacks are that the video is compressed so you lose quality and I've heard that not all dvd players will be able to play the recorded dvd. My brother-in-law has a sony dvd recorder and he's happy with it. I haven't heard any problems from him about the software giving problems.

The mini-DV tapes offer the best recording quality, but now you have to copy it to a dvd/tape so you can watch it using a vcr or dvd player. Skipping through the tape is cumbersome.

There are newer hard-drive cameras now but that makes me nervous and when you run out of space, you just can't pop in a new hard-drive.

I read the same review about the 3CCD camera. I think most consumer level cameras have problems recording in low light situations.

As far as being able to take photos as well, no video camera is going to take decent pictures. Samsung does sell a video/digital camera that has 2 lenses: one for recording and the other for photos. I don't know anyone with one so no experience with it.

You might be better off getting a thin point and shoot that you can take along with the video camera.

Happy hunting!

yakky · 12-06-06, 06:33

Another thing to think about is how much video will you really be shooting? I have a canon mini dv camera that is a great drawer liner. It shoots great video and all but I've got a little Canon SD400 that shoots great video also and is a heck of a lot smaller. The bigger thing to think about is how much video editing will you be doing? If you are happy with the raw footage, the DVD based camcorders may be a good idea. If you want good looking videos that people may want to watch, get ready to do some editing on the computer. With that you will need a firewire card (for most cameras) and some more software.

SR77 · 12-06-06, 06:49

thanks for the replies. I was just reading some stuff over at camcorderinfo.com and man is my head spinning. There is so much to take in. I think i just need to decide between a minidv vs. a dvd type. This is my biggest decision as I don't currently have a DVD burner on my PC. Any help for the pros and cons of each type is appreciated. thanks for all the help.

hooked · 12-06-06, 09:06

It doesn't sound like you are going to be doing any major editing so the dvd camcorder might be the way to go. The only drawback is the software incompatibility issue with XP SP2. I have not heard this. My brother-in-law has a Sony DVD camcorder and he's sent us videos on dvd with the titles and transitions so I know he used the editing software and he just bought a new computer so it's got XP on it.

paul79uf · 12-06-06, 09:07

I think Hooked already touched on this......but let me say again that if you are going to ever do any editing. It is far better to have a mini-dv camcorder.

Mini-DVD cameras compress the video a lot more than mini-dv.

1 hour of full quality raw Mini-DV footage takes up about 13 GB of hard drive space.

A full sized DVD-R holds only 4.7GB of data. So I'd imagine that the Mini-DVD holds about half that amount.

I also agree with Hooked about the hard drive based camcorders. Don't even think about those until they have models with swappable micro drives or better yet, huge flash memory cards.

yakky · 12-07-06, 05:25

If a DVD burner for your computer is holding you back on the minidv, they run about $40 shipped. Lots of other good uses for a DVD burner like backing up your data.

Newegg.com - LITE-ON Black 16X DVD±R Burner W/ LightScribe and 5X DVD-RAM Write - OEM

Grimm · 12-07-06, 05:00

Also you will need a software package for the mini dv type. I bought a Panasonic two years ago, and am just now getting around to making dvd's of our first couple of tapes. I didn't realize I needed the software since I have a Nero program already. You need a software package to do authoring (it compresses the file into MPEG-2). I just got the Pinnacle Studio Plus. It was $100, but got it on Black Friday for $30. Definitely continue checking out sites like camcorderinfo. The best advice I can give you is to not only read the reviews, but go through the forums for the prospective cameras you are looking at. So far I am very happy with the Panasonic that I bought. It does have pretty grainy indoor/low light picture, but from what I read this is a problem with all digital camcorders. But there may be a brand that is better at this if you will be primarily shooting indoors. I really don't find it a problem unless it's dark and there is only like one lamp on in a room. As mentioned, once you download the tape, it takes up like 13GB of space, but when compressed during the process to dvd it ends up around 4GB, so you can get one tape on a dvd.

DETAILKING · 12-07-06, 10:09

I just went through this research project. I ended up with a Cannon Elura 100. This model supposed to be in the midrange market but cannon realized that there is no such market so they priced it very close to the entry level camera (the ZR lineup). It got good reviews and is a nice camera. Unless you spend close to a grand they all suck in low light, but they are not that bad, just a bit grainy.

I don't like the HD ones...if the HD goes, there goes the camera! The DVD ones are simple but loading times are preetty long. If you turn the camera on, sometimes it might take up to 30 seconds for it to find the spot where it leftoff to be ready to tape....annoying.

MiniDV is the probably the best. You can download it to your computer and edit it if you want and then burn it onto DVD. This is an extra step though and will require a DVD burner, time, and a decent computer to handle the video. Also you don't want to swap huge files on your main HD, so you will most likely want to buy an external 100 gig HD to store and burn video footage from the tapes.

Hope this helps!

SR77 · 12-10-06, 10:53

thanks for the help. After many hours of reading i think i have deceided on the Panasonic PVGS 300 mini DV unit. Plus Circuit City.com has these right now for $469.