camcorder help

[drfrank]

Dear All,

Following the recent birth of our first child want to buy a camcorder but I am confused as to which I should buy.

My main issues are:

1) Budget of around 300 quid

2) SD versus hard disk ?

(the SD seem good value but I am concerned about running out of space on an SD card. How long can you video for when using a 4GB SD ?)

I need it to be fairly simple too, nothing too grand, just a point and shoot !

Any help/recommendations greatly appreciated

Drfrank

[drfrank]

Anyone ?? Please ??

[V8TVR1978]

2 days ago we bought a JVC GZ-MG680 video camera with spare battery, case and an 8GB micro SD card. (Also got wiring to mount in car.)It is a 120 GB hard disk for 30 hours of taping. The SD card is going to be used for stills and they say will hold 9999 fine pictures or another 2 hours of video. Got everything at a Father's Day / Graduation sale at a local electronics store for $638.00 Canadian. (You do the conversion.) We wanted a camera to mount in our V8 Taimar and after looking for about a month, this was the best deal. It is not an HD camera though, as they averaged 2X the money for the low end models and they didn't have the shaking option and we needed that for a car mounted camera. If you use Fleabay or somewhere that you are not touching the camera when purchasing make sure it is the newest model as we could have got last years model (probably assembled in 2007) for $150.00 less but without the car wiring. (Must have wanted some of the 150 back by selling us the wiring.) It even has a button to download to Youtube. Also has a remote. Now I have to learn how to use it so I can keep both hands on the wheel. Hope this helps you on your decision.

[drfrank]

Thanks for the advice !

[Road2Ruin]

I bought a panasonic SD card model about 6 months ago. About £170.00 and with the 8GB SDHC card I bought (£30 Including reader) it records between 3 hours and 7 hours of footage depending on the quality setting. The good thing about the SD card camcorders is that the small ones like the panasonic can fit into your jeans pocket yet still give good results. The files are really easy to transfer as well if you have or get and SDHC card reader as you just take the card out and plug it in, save conecting the camcorder with a cable. The Hard disk models can of course hold more video but what happens when the hard disk goes kaput coz you droped it!

Pete