Cam Corders

[Marcellus]

A question for the PH massive;

"I'm looking to buy a cam corder and know absolutely nothing about them so; what, which and where do I buy one?"

My budget is about £500.

[Mr Noble]

http://www.simplydv.co.uk/Reviews/panasonic_nv-gs2...


I'm selling my one of these. Best one available about 8 months ago. Got it to use on trackdays with my bullet cam (just sold) and have found that there is only so much viewing of a car in motion that I can take.


Think I'm going to stick to stills.

PM me if yr interested. Its almost brand new and has all the spares and extras too.

Greg

[Smiler.]

If you want to use a bullet cam, make sure it not only has the right connections but also that it has the AV-IN function setting available. I made this mistake last week with a cracking deal from a local shop. All the conenctions were there, but not the function setting.

Also, make sure it's PAL & not NTSC.

[Marcellus]

Smiler - AV in etc etc is a must (got too tired of standing on my head to view footage!)

I assume HDD is the only way to go these days?

What are thoughts on this;
http://www.johnlewis.com/Computing/Cameras+and+Cam...

[Smiler.]

Marcellus said:

Smiler - AV in etc etc is a must (got too tired of standing on my head to view footage!)

I assume HDD is the only way to go these days?

What are thoughts on this;
http://www.johnlewis.com/Computing/Cameras+and+Cam...

That looks good. The HDD seems to have a good storage capacity, although I'd check the resolution @ 42 hours. The ones I'm converting from tape to mpeg are about 13GB/60 minutes. This is compressed to a maximum of 4.7GB for edited DVD quality.

My software is pretty old though so things might have moved on.

[furtive]

I've got a Sony HDD camcorders (I've got the 52 and not the 72) - it's highly recommended. No more messing with tapes.

[matthew_h]

For car stuff, I would stick with good ole cassettes as they far more resistant to vibration that HDDs or DVDs.

[Smiler.]

matthew_h said:

For car stuff, I would stick with good ole cassettes as they far more resistant to vibration that HDDs or DVDs.

Ah, I thought that when I bought mine esp as it was for mainly bike use. Not having to chage tapes would be good though.

[Marcellus]

thanks for all of this advice guys.....I've not done much work today but been doing quite a bit of research on cam corders and here's my summary (please correct me if I'm wrong)

Mini Tapes
- good quality recording (the best?)
- tapes last 60/90 minutes
- established technology
- cheapest

DVD type
- not quite as good quality as tapes
- disc lasts only 30minutes
- new technology
- a tad more expensive
- no tapes!!!

Hard disk
- Finite quantity of recording without deleting
- newest technology
- most expensive
- not as good picture quality
- no tapes or discs

The other thing I've been told is that apparently AV-In/record is not all that common a feature on many camcorders due to some import tax brackets or is this total bull?

[Smiler.]

Marcellus said:

The other thing I've been told is that apparently AV-In/record is not all that common a feature on many camcorders due to some import tax brackets or is this total bull?

Dunno the reason but only the upper end model tend to have this. I actually bought a Sony HC94E last week, but only the Sony HC96E has the full AV-In functions (I got a refund from the local shop). I then found a Sony HC96E via eBuyer (sourced in HK) for a great price, but it was NTSC so not compatible with UK format (PAL).