Camcorder Purchase advice please !

[T5GRF]

Due to the impending arrival of our first child I have decided our ancient JVC camcorder needs to be upgraded.

I don't want to spend any more than £350, and need it to be quite compact, have decent battery life, and I am leaning towards camers that have a built in hard drive rather than DVD or SD card recorders.

I am looking at the JVC GZ-MG330 or the TOSHIBA GSC-K80HE, anyone got a view on either of these or could recommend a good alternative?

Thanks for your help in advance

[pdV6]

Do you have a particular reason for favouring HD recorders over SD ones?

I'd have thought that an solid state recorder would be potentially more compact, more flexible and potentially more rugged.

Bought one of these a while back and am quite impressed with it.

[T5GRF]

Hi yes I looked at the Panasonic as well,it is a nice and very compact unit, but wasn't sure about how much video could be stored on say an 8gb card, and wasn't keen on the thought of having to change cards if it gets prolonged use. In your experience how much footage can you store on an 8gb card?

[pdV6]

An 8Gb SDHC card is good for approx 2 hours with all the settings turned up full. In fact, the battery will run out before you've filled the card. It'll also take a 16Gb SDHC card if you could be bothered to stump up the cash required.

[Shnozz]

T5GRF said:

Hi yes I looked at the Panasonic as well,it is a nice and very compact unit, but wasn't sure about how much video could be stored on say an 8gb card, and wasn't keen on the thought of having to change cards if it gets prolonged use. In your experience how much footage can you store on an 8gb card?

Have a look on the Panny website where it suggests about 13 hours 20 mins...plenty enough for me.

I have been doing some research to buy a new camcorder that records in either HD or on memory card, so that I can transfer the clips easily to a PC to edit them rather than via DV tape.

I originally decided on the Sony hard disc one but heard a few poor reports, plus I want to do in car footage and a number of people said that the HD wasnt very stable being bounced around and pointed me in the direction of solid state vid cams. I have just spent most of last weekend going through web reviews and could have saved my time reading this thread as the SDR-7 is the one I have concluded looks the best balance.

Hence I ordered one last night. Went through dabs.com for £181 delivered.

[Shnozz]

pdV6 said:

An 8Gb SDHC card is good for approx 2 hours with all the settings turned up full. In fact, the battery will run out before you've filled the card. It'll also take a 16Gb SDHC card if you could be bothered to stump up the cash required.

useful to get a users point of view as the panny site says:-

As a guide, each 1GB of SD Memory will store 10 minutes of video at the highest quality and 22 minutes in the economy mode (eg 4Gb Card holds 40 minutes of High Quality video).

[pdV6]

It's an inexact science due to the nature of mpeg compression; your mileage will vary depending on what you're filming!

[Emeye]

I just bought a Panasonic SDR-S10 off Ebay as a refurb for £140 inc delivery. Was like new, apart from damaged box where it has been opened before - they are returned argos stock. This is the splash-proof version. It is VERY compact and light compared to the Sony HD DCR-SR100E I bought for £190 off Ebay - private bid, but never used. I wanted this model for it's remote feature.

I'd advise going down to Currys or Comet or Jessops to check out the weight and the way they handle to see which you prefer.

Cheers.

[T5GRF]

Thanks for the replies, if I can fit circa 2 hours on an 8gb card then that might change my mind in favour of the Pany given its size.

Comet are selling this HD camcorder for what seems like a very reasonable price anyone looked at this :

http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/473308/TO...

Edited by T5GRF on Monday 21st July 11:49

[pdV6]

The size was what swung it for me. Having owned other camcorders in the past, I know that for every-day, unplanned recording they simply don't get used / taken with you if they are too big to slip in a pocket / handbag.

The Panny gets used a lot more simply because it's not a chore to have it with you!

[Shnozz]

Emeye said:

I just bought a Panasonic SDR-S10 off Ebay as a refurb for £140 inc delivery. Was like new, apart from damaged box where it has been opened before - they are returned argos stock. This is the splash-proof version. It is VERY compact and light compared to the Sony HD DCR-SR100E I bought for £190 off Ebay - private bid, but never used. I wanted this model for it's remote feature.

I'd advise going down to Currys or Comet or Jessops to check out the weight and the way they handle to see which you prefer.

Cheers.

I briefly looked at the SDR-S10 as well, they are priced at £145 in Argos at the moment.

[RVVUNM]

I have just changed from a JVC HD camcorder to a Sony DCR-SR55E (40gb,17hrs recording)and its brilliant. I would not buy another JVC if you paid me,the software was unworkable, however the Sony is very easy to use.

[Emeye]

Shnozz said:

Emeye said:

I just bought a Panasonic SDR-S10 off Ebay as a refurb for £140 inc delivery. Was like new, apart from damaged box where it has been opened before - they are returned argos stock. This is the splash-proof version. It is VERY compact and light compared to the Sony HD DCR-SR100E I bought for £190 off Ebay - private bid, but never used. I wanted this model for it's remote feature.

I'd advise going down to Currys or Comet or Jessops to check out the weight and the way they handle to see which you prefer.

Cheers.

I briefly looked at the SDR-S10 as well, they are priced at £145 in Argos at the moment.

Damn! I only bought my refurb last week for £140, but it's brand new anyway apart from the box! So I saved a fiver.

Definitely consider one from Argos, as you should be able to take it back if you don't like it - it's shockproof as well as rain proof too!

My plan is to mount mine to the outside of the car - it's the perfect camera for that, weighs ~200g.

[pdV6]

Shnozz said:

I briefly looked at the SDR-S10 as well, they are priced at £145 in Argos at the moment.

I was tempted by the SDR-SW20, which is basically a fully-waterproof version of the SDR-S7.
Eventually decided that the premium was too much for functionality that I was quite unlikely to ever use.

[Emeye]

Not much chance of yo finding an Argos with an SDR-S10 in stock - I've just spent 10mins checking the whole North West and all branches are Out of Stock!

[Slinky]

And there's me thinking about pretty much exactly the same purchase..

hmmmmm... That Tosh is very tempting as is the lack of requirement for memory cards... Are HDD camera's that sensitive to vibration??

[Emeye]

Slinky said:

And there's me thinking about pretty much exactly the same purchase..

hmmmmm... That Tosh is very tempting as is the lack of requirement for memory cards... Are HDD camera's that sensitive to vibration??

I've only just bought a HDD camera, but I'm sure that they will record into a memory buffer before putting the data onto the HDD - I think you'd really have to shake it up to get a problem.

[clonmult]

I recently went a slightly different route - was wanting both a reasonable stills camera and something that would do video.

Bough a Kodak camera (Z1275) that happens to do 30fps/1280x720 (ie. HD) video. Its one of the few digital cameras on which the zoom works whilst doing video.

You do get a bit of motor whine recorded if you use the zoom, and the auto focus takes a moment to catch up if you zoom in whilst recording.

Only real problem is that the form factor of a camera tends to make for a little more shake on video than a camcorder does. Apart from that video quality is absolutely stunning. Takes SD/SDHC/MMC cards, and I happened to have 2x2gig RS-MMC cards (work very nicely) and a 4gig MicroSDHC card.

Highly recommended, and you can get them for around £100. Or about £65 for a refurb from ebuyer.

[Road2Ruin]

I have a really small Panasonic camera just the SD version, about the size of a large mobile phone(one of these) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-SDR-S7EB-K-Camco... . I use an 8GB SDHC card and get about 2 hours on it. The only downside I have found so far is that it feels cheep, but only because its so light. It can fit easily into a pocket, a real bonus for carrying around. I also bought from amazon the 8GB (£15.00)card and another 4GB one with a reader (£10.00). I would recommend the reader as messing around with the cables to and from the camcorder is a pain. Footage so far has been excellent.

Peter

[Shnozz]

Road2Ruin said:

I have a really small Panasonic camera just the SD version, about the size of a large mobile phone(one of these) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-SDR-S7EB-K-Camco... . I use an 8GB SDHC card and get about 2 hours on it. The only downside I have found so far is that it feels cheep, but only because its so light. It can fit easily into a pocket, a real bonus for carrying around. I also bought from amazon the 8GB (£15.00)card and another 4GB one with a reader (£10.00). I would recommend the reader as messing around with the cables to and from the camcorder is a pain. Footage so far has been excellent.

Peter

I think you will find that was the one recommended in the first reply (and the one I have now ordered!).

The problem I am having is finding a mount that is acceptable on trackdays (ie non-suction mounts..). I have no access to the roll bar in my Lotus to bolt onto that, my seats are 1 piece so cannot have a headrest mount, so I am running out of ideas!