Camcorders

[STONEISLAND]

I have absolutely no experience in camcorders having never own one. My Mrs is expecting a baby and I want to be able to capture the moment of he or she growing up.

I really want a DVD one as my PC is not up for transferring from camcorder to hard drive to DVD (if I'm right with that) which I may want to give to family and friends hence must be DVD. I was looking at the Sony one but heard picture quality is poor........? Is it just Sony with in my budget I have as choice? I have searched and Hitachi do one but its very expensive.

I have a budget of around £400.

Any suggestions? Advise?
You help as always much appreciated and reps await.

[Angua]

If you could stretch your budget there is this one
Item Number 553354

QVC Price £599.00
While Stocks Last Price £495.84
UK Postage & Packaging £6.45
Save! Buy two or more & save on postage and packaging
Immortalise those memorable moments with the Hitachi DVD-R Camcorder. It gives you up to 60 minutes' recording on DVD-Rs and up to 2 hours' on DVDRAM with 800,000 CCD pixel resolution. The camcorder also features a 2.5-inch LCD screen, digital photo mode, 18x optical and 500x digital zoom, digital stereo sound and DVD in and out. Its really nifty functions also include a recording-time-remaining display and a colour view finder. The camera measures 6.4cm (W) by 8.9cm (H) by 14.6cm (D), and weighs 490g.

[JediMaster]

Originally Posted by skunk4u

I have absolutely no experience in camcorders having never own one. My Mrs is expecting a little one and I want to be able to capture the moment of he or she growing up.

I really want a DVD one as my PC is not up for transferring from camcorder to hard drive to DVD (if I'm right with that) which I may want to give to family and friends hence must be DVD. I was looking at the Sony one but heard picture quality is poor........? Is it just Sony with in my budget I have as choice? I have searched and Hitachi do one but its very expensive.

I have a budget of around £400.

Any suggestions? Advise?
You help as always much appreciated and reps await.

Hi... Can I offer another Idea
How about Div-X Recorder. I had a Camera from Asda last week or so. Its a Samsung DigiMax A6 & its soo COOL.. 6Mega Pixel & the REAL bonus (I never knew till I got home & tested it ou) It records in 640x480 30 Frames Per Second. (Very good Quality) & it was only £149.99

You can record to MMC Card & burn to DVD & Edit very Easy.

If you want a Demo I can upload a Clip.
Or buy one at Asda & test it for a bit. 1yr No Fuss Quarantee with Asda. I had a 128 MB Card & it ROCKS

[Mick]

Off-topic & Inappropriate comments Removed - Please stay on topic.

[mrlipring]

with dvdr camcorders, the PQ is generally worse than miniDV. They're also absolute *******s to edit. I know you won't be shooting any blockbusters on it, but really, DVDs are a pain in the arse to edit. I couldn't advise anyone to go that route.

What is it about your pc that you think it won't work? A firewire card's only a tenner. A dvd writer's 30 quid.

edit: oh, and jedi master i'd quite like to see some samples, please.

[STONEISLAND]

Originally Posted by mrlipring

with dvdr camcorders, the PQ is generally worse than miniDV. They're also absolute *******s to edit. I know you won't be shooting any blockbusters on it, but really, DVDs are a pain in the arse to edit. I couldn't advise anyone to go that route.

What is it about your pc that you think it won't work? A firewire card's only a tenner. A dvd writer's 30 quid.

edit: oh, and jedi master i'd quite like to see some samples, please.

hmmmmm is it easy to edit on pc what is a firewire card? I think I have a DVD writer as that what it says on the drive.

If its as easy as you say which camcorder would you recommend?

[SMHarman]

Editing on a PC is easy, you use Microsoft Movie Maker or another piece of software, download the tape onto the hard disk (so you need about 40Gb of free HDD space, 20Gb for the tape and 20Gb workspace and away you go. Any PC bought in the last 2-3 years should be able to cope, just it will take a long time, perhaps 8 hrs on a slow machine to compile the tape into the format to put on the DVD...

so you set it running and go to bed.

[JediMaster]

Originally Posted by skunk4u

hmmmmm is it easy to edit on pc what is a firewire card? I think I have a DVD writer as that what it says on the drive.

If its as easy as you say which camcorder would you recommend?

If you want to edit via the Camera I have then you transfer the Movie to PC (size is up to you) I have 2x 256 MB Cards. So I only need 512MB MAX not 40+GB lige some require. Edit is so EASY.

I have this also (£35 online) to Edit Vids the way the PRO's do it


I use VirtualDub (FREE) & other stuff like: Nero 6, Ulead Video Studio & Camtasia Producer,

Will upload Video Sample NOW. Will post URL when its DONE
__________________

Sample is at http://www.freepgs.com/arfarf/Samsung/ (My PC & Desk) lol

Anyone want a longer Sample? or different type just ASK

This Clip is Un-Edited & is direct from Camera

[Matth]

One format you really want to avoid is MicroMV - a friend had one, though fortunately when it failed within a month, the place (one of the members discount warehouse type stores) didn't have any more of them.

MicroMV support in software is limited, and the supplied software is a pain, so stick with the more widespread MiniDV - not such a tiny format, but a whole lot more usable.

[Hom3r]

I'm getting this one

http://www.pricerunner.co.uk/sound-a.../315540/prices

Yes its £650 but RRP is £900