Camcorder for upto £250 (ish!!)
Discussion
Hello all! It's Father In Law's 60th next week so I thought a camcorder would make a decent pressie. The last time I bought one was a few years ago. It was Sony, came with little cassettes and cost over £1200. Now it would appear that things have moved on considerably and everything you buy is a lot cheaper and doesn't need cassettes. Neither him or I are great with computers, it will only be used for basic family footage, holidays, etc. Ease of use, durability and portability are the top priorities. If it's tricky to use and transfer to DVD or too big, it just won't get used. How much should I spend and what should I spend it on? All the reviews seem to assume I understand the technology. I don't! I thought I'd stand a better chance of getting a sensible answer from my fellow PHers!
I bought myself one last year and did a little research:-
- You'll get most for your money (in terms of quality and ability) by buying a tape machine (digital tape). It'll be a little bigger and heavier (actually good for stability), and hence a little less portable. However it'll be the most effort to convert onto DVD - will need a cable to connect to your PC and (I think) a card/socket attached to the motherboard to interpret it (check this...not 100% sure).
- Straight-to-DVD machines are, despite being the easiest, apparently a dying breed. They're also the most vulnerable to shock (which IIRC can mess-up the disc), and of necessity are a dying breed.
- Machines with inbuilt hard-drives are the new big thing. Lots of memory, cable-straight-to-PC, small, compact. But if the HDD dies, you almost may as well bin the thing and replace it...and of course you lose whatever is on there at the time. Slightly vulnerable to shock when writing.
- SDHC card machines are now growing in popularity with the increasing memory sizes available. As small/compact as an HDD machine, but with flexible memory which you treat just like a digital camera card (need a different reader though). No shock-risk, but also the most expensive-per-capability, when you factor the cards in as well. I went for one of these, not because it was the best resolution/quality for the money, but because it seemed the best combination of reliability and usability, and because it's just going to be holidays and family, not short-films or anything professional.
£250 won't get you a High-Def machine (not a decent one anyway), but unless you've a HD TV you won't benefit from that anyway. When looking, read the professional reviews as they're quite revealing...the differences between the brands can be shocking) I played it safe, brand-wise, so was deciding between a Panasonic (P-7?) and a Canon (FS-10), both taking SDHC cards and both in the £200-ish bracket. Went for the Canon because I like their stills cameras, but that doesn't apparently mean much with camcorders. Prices may have come down a little in the last 6 months...
Edit: Optical zoom varies, depending on widest angle - 10x with 18mm wide-angle is different to 10x with 25mm wide-angle, but can be hard to find out (annoyingly). And no point having more than 10-12x optical without a tripod. Digital zoom not overly relevant as it sacrifices resolution. Some have some form of image stabilisation, which might be worthwhile.
- You'll get most for your money (in terms of quality and ability) by buying a tape machine (digital tape). It'll be a little bigger and heavier (actually good for stability), and hence a little less portable. However it'll be the most effort to convert onto DVD - will need a cable to connect to your PC and (I think) a card/socket attached to the motherboard to interpret it (check this...not 100% sure).
- Straight-to-DVD machines are, despite being the easiest, apparently a dying breed. They're also the most vulnerable to shock (which IIRC can mess-up the disc), and of necessity are a dying breed.
- Machines with inbuilt hard-drives are the new big thing. Lots of memory, cable-straight-to-PC, small, compact. But if the HDD dies, you almost may as well bin the thing and replace it...and of course you lose whatever is on there at the time. Slightly vulnerable to shock when writing.
- SDHC card machines are now growing in popularity with the increasing memory sizes available. As small/compact as an HDD machine, but with flexible memory which you treat just like a digital camera card (need a different reader though). No shock-risk, but also the most expensive-per-capability, when you factor the cards in as well. I went for one of these, not because it was the best resolution/quality for the money, but because it seemed the best combination of reliability and usability, and because it's just going to be holidays and family, not short-films or anything professional.
£250 won't get you a High-Def machine (not a decent one anyway), but unless you've a HD TV you won't benefit from that anyway. When looking, read the professional reviews as they're quite revealing...the differences between the brands can be shocking) I played it safe, brand-wise, so was deciding between a Panasonic (P-7?) and a Canon (FS-10), both taking SDHC cards and both in the £200-ish bracket. Went for the Canon because I like their stills cameras, but that doesn't apparently mean much with camcorders. Prices may have come down a little in the last 6 months...
Edit: Optical zoom varies, depending on widest angle - 10x with 18mm wide-angle is different to 10x with 25mm wide-angle, but can be hard to find out (annoyingly). And no point having more than 10-12x optical without a tripod. Digital zoom not overly relevant as it sacrifices resolution. Some have some form of image stabilisation, which might be worthwhile.
Edited by havoc on Sunday 15th February 12:41
I was bought one of these for Christmas: http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Cam...
Unbeknownst to my family I'd been eyeing a HD camcorder, and it was pure coincidence that they had bought me a camcorder. When I saw that this one wasn't HD I considered taking it back to the store, but I shot some video with it anyway and was impressed by the quality so never bothered.
May be worth you checking it out
Unbeknownst to my family I'd been eyeing a HD camcorder, and it was pure coincidence that they had bought me a camcorder. When I saw that this one wasn't HD I considered taking it back to the store, but I shot some video with it anyway and was impressed by the quality so never bothered.
May be worth you checking it out
I have a Canon mini-DV camcorder, can't remember the model, but i bought it for £350 about a year ago, and it has some amazing features, wide screen etc, but i must be honest, the quality once transfered to PC via firewire is aweful, same with trying to record onto a DVR via AV transfer.
The firewire board inside the camera also became faulty, and as i lost the reciept i now have a camera that cannot transfer video to PC.
I then bought an old £50 JVC off ebay and its awesome. The video quality is fantastic, and i've since recomended JVC's to a few mates, and they all approve.
Not saying all Canon's a bad, maybe i just got a crap one, but JVC is highly recomended.
The firewire board inside the camera also became faulty, and as i lost the reciept i now have a camera that cannot transfer video to PC.
I then bought an old £50 JVC off ebay and its awesome. The video quality is fantastic, and i've since recomended JVC's to a few mates, and they all approve.
Not saying all Canon's a bad, maybe i just got a crap one, but JVC is highly recomended.
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