Which video camera???????

[smiffy]

Been looking at gettin a video camera off e blag.

Thing is where do i start???
Wanting one that i can plug into pc,transfer and edit.
HDD seems a tad expensive just now, there's DVD,Digital 8, MiniDV.
Does anyone know what'll be best.

Gettin it for my girlfriend for her dance school,however if i happen to be going off road it may find it's way into the Surf!!!
(Hope she like's the Safari Snorkel i've ordered her for christmas: )

Any info much appreciated

[stormforce]

Been looking at gettin a video camera off e blag.

Thing is where do i start???
Wanting one that i can plug into pc,transfer and edit.
HDD seems a tad expensive just now, there's DVD,Digital 8, MiniDV.
Does anyone know what'll be best.

Gettin it for my girlfriend for her dance school,however if i happen to be going off road it may find it's way into the Surf!!!
(Hope she like's the Safari Snorkel i've ordered her for christmas: )

Any info much appreciated

just make sure the girlfriend fits the snorkel properly

sorry smithy but i know nothing about v/cameras

[smiffy]

must remember and get her a hole saw as well!!!

Found this camera on that auction site

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sony-DCR-TRV27...QQcmdZViewItem

Any thoughts anyone????????

[andrewlee31]

yep its a video camera all right

[slim]

The only camera that i can comment on is my own sony digital 8.
it is a good cam but a little on the large side in comparison to newer cams. the only thing i dont like about it is the indoor filming quality. the best thing about it is the huge zoom both optical and digital. This is now a five year old cam but still works ok.

[smiffy]

yep its a video camera all right

Just found another format........Hi8!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!

[smiffy]

The only camera that i can comment on is my own sony digital 8.
it is a good cam but a little on the large side in comparison to newer cams. the only thing i dont like about it is the indoor filming quality. the best thing about it is the huge zoom both optical and digital. This is now a five year old cam but still works ok.

Is it like the one listed????????

[stormforce]

Just found another format........Hi8!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!

a hi8 thats one of our works transits

[Chillitt]

digital 8 is a digital recording on an 8mm tape
hi 8 is an analogue recording at a higher def than a std 8, but not as good as digital.
better than all of them is dv tape, which is smaller than the others and better resolution.
then you have a digital recording onto disc, and card and hard drives and i get confused.
the lens is as important as the resolution, no point in recording i hi def immage thats unfocused or dark.
thats about all i know, cos i was only at currys for 9 months and i didnt listen...

[slim]

Is it like the one listed????????

very similar to that, i think mine is the 330e though!

[dirtydog]

we just got a JVC hdd camera at work for a department and it looks great! 4.5 hours up to 20 hours recording time i think... if they will be looking at thier tapes on a pc/mac then the transfer speed will be really quick which is a massive advantage over tapes.

[Gizmo]

I use a Panasonic NV-GS33 Digital Video Camera
Mini DV format

Its compact with a fold lens. Has functions as follows:

Colour Night View
Soft Skin
Tele Macro
Back Light function
has remote mic function [hand held mic supplied]
DV In/Out
USB / S-Video ports
Auto/Manual Focus
Also comes with a Web Cam function

It does have 500x Digital Zoom, but even better and of more importance it uses a Lumix 10x Optical Zoom
Infra Red Remote Control
Can take Photo Shots - but this writes to the tape and cuts out your video [this is the only downfall in that it does not have an SD Card for recording these one off shots]
Camera Length is approx 5-6 inch and width in the palm is approx 3inches


http://www.pricerunner.co.uk/sound-a...197867/details for technical info

[Tallyman]

What ever you do, shop around. I bought a new Panasonic NV-GC21 last Christmas. It was about £150 below the normal asking price off EmpireDirect.

Before deciding on what to buyso we looked on the Which? website and in their mags (need to be a subscriber to check online). Panasonic came out quite well in the tests (not the model I bought but similar) and my brother-in-law used it in June to record a movie of my daughter's wedding. It came out quite well but was helped by using a decent DVD editing program.

[Long way 'round]

It all depends

If you're going for consumable media (tapes, cds & memory cards) go for Mini DV the pros are still using it because of the ability to hard reference (all shot footage is still threre no matter what) if everything is on digital media (computer harddrives) the space you need is HUGE! Recording onto dvds and cds is already obsolete and the space is limited. Hi8 forget if you intend to use your computer to edit there are anologue to digital converters but why bother if this if a new camera. Hi8 is good but not as good as Mini DV and Mini DV tapes as the name suggests are smaller. With a Mini DV camcorder you can use the tapes to archive edited and finished footage saving space on hard drives although it can also be archives on DVD.

Then there's the HD (High Definition) and 3 CCD. 3 CDD is broadcast quality or greater although for the quality you loose low light capturing ability so you'd need a light. HD is better still.

If you want to use it under water get a camcorder with a hard drive (no tape to get damp and gum up) and get a JVC OR SONY for availability of underwater housings.

Lenses; Panasonic and Sony for quality.
Panasonic = Leica Dicomar
Sony = Carl Zeiss

I have a Panasonic 3 CDD Mini DV camcorder with a Leica lens. Easy to use very good quality both sound and visual. Falls short in very low light situations (only captures every 3-5 frame) so I got a light. But as a diver I'm a little disappointed because there's no housing on the market rated to the depths that I dive to. So I would have got a Sony or JVC.

If you're a diver get the housing and camera at the same time these things have a very short production life.

Then there's the computer hardware and software to deal with it all but I think you,re question was camcorders.

[B16mts]

we just got a JVC hdd camera at work for a department and it looks great! 4.5 hours up to 20 hours recording time i think... if they will be looking at thier tapes on a pc/mac then the transfer speed will be really quick which is a massive advantage over tapes.

I bought my brother a JVC 20gb HDD camera and its amazing!!

For the shear ease of use its brilliant, it saves each video clip as a file, then you just copy it across to your pc as a file and edit it as you like. Soooooo easy!

Plus you can actually get more than half an hour footage on (unlike most of the dvd camera's!)

here's the base model that he's got : http://www.amazon.co.uk/JVC-GZ-MG21E...&s=electronics

definatly worth a look!

otherwise, stick to minidv, as the quality of the dvd ones just doesn't seem to be there yet (nor the recording time), so i don't think they'll last long. HDD is the future!

Martin