First baby on way - which camcorder?

[MBradbury]

Our first child is due to be putting in an appearance in the next month and I fancy getting a camcorder to catch those special times. Having done some limited research I've decided on a hard disc rather than the DVD type and fancy the Sony DCR SR50 but am wondering about the new HD cameras that are appearing. Do any of you have thoughts on HD camcorders, I've got HD televisions so would be able to see the benefit but at twice the price are they worth it?

[olf]

Just a quick response cos it's bed time.

Our number one arrived last year and I had exactly the same predicament.

I went for the DVD and now I am pleased I did... As a first time parent you don't have a lot of time for editing and the DVD is instantly shareable, playable in practically any home now. I'm glad I didn't go for a HD camera!

Edited by olf on Sunday 28th January 23:06

[Tuna]

We got the JVC GZ-MG505, a 3ccd hard drive camcorder. Having seen both parents and in-laws go through cameras at a fair rate when tape mechanisms failed, we wanted a camcorder that didn't have easily knackered internals.

So far, it's been very impressive - in daylight the pictures are excellent quality and it copes pretty well with difficult dark indoor shots. It's very easy to use and with no tapes to worry about you just pick it up and start filming whenever you want to. No doubt we'll have to get a bit more organised when we've filled it with 7 hours of exciting family events, but it looks like it will be easy enough to dump it all to a DVD or two when necessary.

[puggit]

We also have a JVC Everio HDD camcorder. So easy to use, it's silly.

We have the 20GB version, and it's more then enough storage space. If you do fill it up, just connect to the PC via USB cable and transfer on to the PC HDD with a drag-and-drop.

Why faff with tapes or DVDs?

[olf]

puggit said:

Why faff with tapes or DVDs?

Mainly because I've had too many hardiscs go down on computers over the years to be convinced that I want these films on anything other than DVD first time round!

"oooh hang on, could you just do your first words again, I have an unrecoverable error on my HD!"

[mr noble]

olf said:

puggit said:

Why faff with tapes or DVDs?

Mainly because I've had too many hardiscs go down on computers over the years to be convinced that I want these films on anything other than DVD first time round!

"oooh hang on, could you just do your first words again, I have an unrecoverable error on my HD!"

You could always burn them off your HD on to pair of DVD's making it safer than just having the one un-edited copy. (which will not last for ever btw, CD-R's and DVD-R's do actually haa shelf life that is no where near as long as a proper bought music or film disc.) Its worth copying and duplicating anything precious even if you did record it straight to dvd.

By far the safest way of doing it would be to but a mini dv camera which are the best quality, the easiest to edit and very unlikely to "fail" if you keep the original tapes. (think how long your grandfathers old cini films lasted in the atic for example.

With mini dv, you record to tape (as the newest and latest High def cams still do!). You then have all the editing capability you could ever need and a proper original hard copy to pop into the safe. You can even edit the original and then put it back onto the tape as you would with a cd or dvd, but without the worry that it maigh fail to reload due to a host of possible fail reasons.

$00.02

G

[Tuna]

olf said:

puggit said:

Why faff with tapes or DVDs?

Mainly because I've had too many hardiscs go down on computers over the years to be convinced that I want these films on anything other than DVD first time round!

"oooh hang on, could you just do your first words again, I have an unrecoverable error on my HD!"

I don't see how that's any worse than either DVD or tape recording - both of those can (and do) suffer from catastrophic mechanism failure, dirt, moisture and physical damage to the media. I've sat and watched my MIL heat her camcorder up with a hairdryer just to get it to play back a tape she made earlier..

At least a HDD error tends to be picked up pretty quickly.. a knackered DVD might only show up when you get to playback.. by which time the day is over and everyone's gone home.

Edited by Tuna on Monday 29th January 14:10

[olf]

Tuna said:

olf said:

puggit said:

Why faff with tapes or DVDs?

Mainly because I've had too many hardiscs go down on computers over the years to be convinced that I want these films on anything other than DVD first time round!

"oooh hang on, could you just do your first words again, I have an unrecoverable error on my HD!"

I don't see how that's any worse than either DVD or tape recording - both of those can (and do) suffer from catastrophic mechanism failure, dirt, moisture and physical damage to the media. I've sat and watched my MIL heat her camcorder up with a hairdryer just to get it to play back a tape she made earlier..

At least a HDD error tends to be picked up pretty quickly.. a knackered DVD might only show up when you get to playback.. by which time the day is over and everyone's gone home.

Edited by Tuna on Monday 29th January 14:10

Might do, but as the other poster has suggested I make at least one back-up which is kept and my parents house and It works for me!

Like I say I have had far more HD's go on me than I have DVD's!