Digital Video camera

[ultra violent]

Would like to get digital video camera, but know very little about them. Main use would be for track days and general fun stuff. Happy to spend up to £650, what should I be looking at?

[speedychrissie]

i dont think you would need to spend that much if you only want a camera to capture the event (rather than be arty and have interchangeable lenses etc).

basically you want a camera that is easy to use, robust and reliable. all bog standard cameras record in the same resolution so i would be mainly looking at robustness. i got a panasonic GS-11 (or something like that!) about 18 months ago. it is great for what i want it for cos it is very easy to use, it has a very impressive optical zoom (useful for capturing stuff from far away without losing quality) and it is fairly robust. but it does now exhibit a few minor niggles after having been taken on about 6 trackdays where it was clamped to a roll bar or hand held and a few autotests. so it occasionally skips under high lateral G's. i dont know if there are any cameras around that are specifically designed to avoid this problem, but i think that would be useful.

hope this helps.
chris

[Mr Noble]

Sony DCR-HC42e

Sony DCR-HC90e

My final 2 contenders after mucho hunting. (and I am not a big sony fan)

Similar cams but the 90 has a larger 3meg CCD, the 42 has a 1mp ccd. Other than that not much in it.

Make sure you get one with AV in (different to DV in) as then you can plug in a bullet camera and film from smaller tighter less accesable places etc.

HTH

Greg

[ultra violent]

I was looking at the Sony DCR 403 which records direct to mini DVD. Any thoughts on that?

[speed8]

Mr Noble said:

Sony DCR-HC42e Sony DCR-HC90e My final 2 contenders after mucho hunting. (and I am not a big sony fan) Similar cams but the 90 has a larger 3meg CCD, the 42 has a 1mp ccd. Other than that not much in it. Make sure you get one with AV in (different to DV in) as then you can plug in a bullet camera and film from smaller tighter less accesable places etc. HTH Greg

I'm not a big fan of Sony stuff either but it was the camera that had everything I needed for a reasonable price. The HC-40 (I think) was the one I got.
Used it for the car on run outs but trying to figure out the best way to get a bullet cam on the paraglider.

[dinkel]

Love canon to bits . . . used it for over 4 years without one failure. Perfect for a dummy like me.