digi camcorder advise needed

[falcemob]

I want to get a digital camcorder that will take a bullet cam. I was looking at either Sony or Canon, preferably Canon as I haven't had much luck with Sony in the past. This will be mainly for putting on my car which is and open top, for videoing my races so I don't need loads of functions just good quality recording. Any advice as to the best buy welcomed.
Max budget of about £500.

>>> Edited by falcemob on Sunday 17th October 13:05

[adam1330]

Have you looked on the Canon Outlet shop on E-Bay? They sell reconditioned cams at cheap prices. I got one from them about 8 months ago, and have had no problems with it. If you get a Canon, you need one with an "i" in the model number if you wnat to use a bullet cam. Canon Outlet shop.

>> Edited by adam1330 on Sunday 17th October 13:19

[whittaker52]

I run a canon MV650i, which does the job really well, but i believe is now dis-continued? and doesnt have a LANC port for controlling the recording while the camera is packed, which means i need to pull the camera out of the packing and hit record before it all starts recording. Ive always been impressed with it though when mated to my RF-Concepts bullet cam.

Looking at Jessops (just to get an indication of matching specs etc), some camcorders to look out for are - MV700i, MV750i, MV6iMC DVM, MVX250i.

Looking on kelkoo -
the MV700i is around £238,
MV750i is around £332,
MV6iMC DVM is around £349,
MVX250i is around £484.

Im not sure which of these with have LANC though, so another thing thats maybe worth looking into?

[juk]

I have a Sharp VL-Z8H which seems to work ok with RFC bullet cam - no probs yet anyway.

[shadytree]

Obviously the most important function is AV in.
Any decent camera with AV in should do the job , but I've just bought the SONY DCR-HC30ES
It's a fantastic camera and the touch screen makes operation when driving a doddle. So I can recomend this model.
Also got the waterproof Bullet Cam from RFC. (again top notch kit)

Just uploading some vids to PHTV today, so you should see the results later. I have'nt quite perfected where to put the mic yet. Had far too much V12 yesterday

>> Edited by shadytree on Monday 18th October 13:52

[Ffirg 005]

Slightly O/T - has anyone got a mic that they are happy with for in-car use? The one I tried got overwhelmed by road and engine noise despite being positioned in the boot with padding, etc. Do mic's come with some sort of decibel rating so you can get one that is suitably desensitised? Or is there a trick to this...

More on-topic - I've researched this pretty extensively and despite being no fan of Sony products I think theirs is the one to go for - DCR-HC30 is the cheapest model with all the functionality required. Many others at similar price points don't have what I consider essential features of external mic input, wired remote option, or of course analogue-in.

Don

[FrenchTVR]

Shady, now you've had the camera for a while are you still really happy with it? looking for a DV camera myself. How much video can you store on the memory stick that comes with the camera.

Cheers,

Mick

[pdV6]

FrenchTVR said:

looking for a DV camera myself. How much video can you store on the memory stick that comes with the camera.

Er, approximately sweet FA I would imagine! You *can* store a bit of vid on a memory card, but either the quality will be awful or the clip will be very short.

"Digital" camcorders store video in a digital format on a magnetic tape just like "analog" ones do...

{edited to add:} and as the camera in question is a Mini-DV model, that would make for 60min recording time (or 90min with LP)

>> Edited by pdV6 on Tuesday 9th November 15:03

[FrenchTVR]

Cheers, must confess I am fairly ignorant on the whole video camera thing.