I'm looking for a camcorder

[SteveLaura 0]

... so I thought I would get help from you lot, rather than do my own research.

This is what I'm looking for:

• Cheap. Cheap cheap cheap cheap cheap.
• Not too bulky.
• Records to DVD.
• Good rather than wow-amazing picture.

I'm considering this as an interim recorder until we can afford something top of the range in a few years time. I don't want the hassle of having to upload to a computer to edit, as my laptop is years old and hasn't much free memory left. I just want to shoot some stuff of the family over Xmas to send to the other family over the pond.

Any suggestions? Or places to look? Please feel free to call me a lazy fat ####### too.

Thank you for your indulgence, people.

[pedroh 21]

the camcorders with minidvd's are becoming cheaper, bad side is that the mini-dvd's are just 30mins recording time.. the other camcorders with regular dvd's are still over 300 bucks... I guess the cheapest ones would be with the Mini-DV.. but it's a pain to copy the video to dvd... I have a camcorder with hard drive, just copy everything to the pc and done.. they're expensive, but i got a good deal through 'a friend of a friend' lol

check buy.com, half.com, or overstock.com, they have good deals sometimes

Edited October 24, 2007 by pedroh

[SteveLaura 0]

the camcorders with minidvd's are becoming cheaper, bad side is that the mini-dvd's are just 30mins recording time.. the other camcorders with regular dvd's are still over 300 bucks... I guess the cheapest ones would be with the Mini-DV.. but it's a pain to copy the video to dvd... I have a camcorder with hard drive, just copy everything to the pc and done.. they're expensive, but i got a good deal through 'a friend of a friend' lol

check buy.com, half.com, or overstock.com, they have good deals sometimes

Do the mini-DVDs play in a DVD player? Or does it need some sort of adapter? I'd rather have the regular DVDs if poss - maybe something under $300 at some of those websites, you reckon?

[pedroh 21]

the camcorders with minidvd's are becoming cheaper, bad side is that the mini-dvd's are just 30mins recording time.. the other camcorders with regular dvd's are still over 300 bucks... I guess the cheapest ones would be with the Mini-DV.. but it's a pain to copy the video to dvd... I have a camcorder with hard drive, just copy everything to the pc and done.. they're expensive, but i got a good deal through 'a friend of a friend' lol

check buy.com, half.com, or overstock.com, they have good deals sometimes

Do the mini-DVDs play in a DVD player? Or does it need some sort of adapter? I'd rather have the regular DVDs if poss - maybe something under $300 at some of those websites, you reckon?

yea mini dvd's play in a regular dvd player, they're not bad, the only thing that sucks is that 30 min limit

[Gaby&Talbert 1]

Go to the electronic stores and discount stores to see if they have items on closeout. Even Wal-Mart will make a deal on closeout items.

[SteveLaura 0]

yea mini dvd's play in a regular dvd player, they're not bad, the only thing that sucks is that 30 min limit

Yeah, that's not great, but it might do if the price is right.

Go to the electronic stores and discount stores to see if they have items on closeout. Even Wal-Mart will make a deal on closeout items.

Good advice. Cheers to both of you.

[DeadPoolX 9]

You might want to note that the video quality in the camcorders that record to mini-DVD is beneath that of mini-DV. Mini-DVD is still better quality than recording to VHS, but the quality it does produce (for a digital camcorder) is decidedly subpar.

The real advantage to mini-DVD is ease-of-use. If you're not going to edit your own video and you just want to record and then pop it into a DVD player as it is, then mini-DVD is for you. Aside from the relatively short recording time, it's much simpler to use. If you're looking for higher quality video, the ability to edit that video when transferring it to DVD, and longer recording times, then mini-DV is probably the right choice. The main disadvantage to mini-DV is it's more difficult to find your pieces of video (they don't appear in block sequences like they do on mini-DVD) and to edit, you'll probably need a firewire connection, since even USB 2.0 is only so-so for video editing (which of course, requires video editing software as well).

There are more options too...

There are HDV camcorders, which record high-definition video to the same media that mini-DV uses. The real difference between this format and mini-DV (aside from the "high definition" part) is that it can be turned into HD-DVD or Blu-Ray easily. It's also more expensive, but as time goes on, the price should fall.

A newcomer to the digital camcorder field is the AVCHD format and it can record high-definition video to DVDs, hard drives, or flash memory. Sounds great, right? Well, it's very expensive right now, the video it shoots is not quite as good as the HDV camcorders and at the moment, there is no way to edit the video these camcorders shoot. None of the current video editing suites can edit it, but this probably will change in the near future. Interestingly enough, you can play back the video on a PS3.

The next type are hard-drive camcorders (for the sake of brevity, I'll refer to them as HD camcorders) and they're good and mostly easy to deal with, since there's no media necessary to purchase. The hard drives are usually pretty large and can store a lot of video. The main problem is that the well-known video editing programs seem to have difficulty (right now) editing the video shot with these camcorders, so you need to rely on the bundled software (which is usually lacking compared to the better quality video editing software). One other issue is that, although never needed to swap out media is nice, if you fill up your HD while on vacation, you have to decide to erase something or stop recording. You can't just buy a new DVD or tape.

And finally, there's the flash memory (or FM) type of camcorder. These camcorders use the same kind of SD cards that many digital cameras use and many of these camcorders can be bought at relatively inexpensive prices. Just remember that you generally "get what you pay for" so don't expect something outstanding if you only paid $100 or so for it. Still, this would be an excellent entry-level option for a child or teenager who wants to have a camcorder, since these are simple to use and won't break the bank.

That's about all I can say on camcorders. Hopefully it helped a little.

[Jasman0717 9]

Take a look at Consumer Reports

[SteveLaura 0]

You might want to note that the video quality in the camcorders that record to mini-DVD is beneath that of mini-DV. Mini-DVD is still better quality than recording to VHS, but the quality it does produce (for a digital camcorder) is decidedly subpar.

The real advantage to mini-DVD is ease-of-use. If you're not going to edit your own video and you just want to record and then pop it into a DVD player as it is, then mini-DVD is for you. Aside from the relatively short recording time, it's much simpler to use. If you're looking for higher quality video, the ability to edit that video when transferring it to DVD, and longer recording times, then mini-DV is probably the right choice. The main disadvantage to mini-DV is it's more difficult to find your pieces of video (they don't appear in block sequences like they do on mini-DVD) and to edit, you'll probably need a firewire connection, since even USB 2.0 is only so-so for video editing (which of course, requires video editing software as well).

There are more options too...

There are HDV camcorders, which record high-definition video to the same media that mini-DV uses. The real difference between this format and mini-DV (aside from the "high definition" part) is that it can be turned into HD-DVD or Blu-Ray easily. It's also more expensive, but as time goes on, the price should fall.

A newcomer to the digital camcorder field is the AVCHD format and it can record high-definition video to DVDs, hard drives, or flash memory. Sounds great, right? Well, it's very expensive right now, the video it shoots is not quite as good as the HDV camcorders and at the moment, there is no way to edit the video these camcorders shoot. None of the current video editing suites can edit it, but this probably will change in the near future. Interestingly enough, you can play back the video on a PS3.

The next type are hard-drive camcorders (for the sake of brevity, I'll refer to them as HD camcorders) and they're good and mostly easy to deal with, since there's no media necessary to purchase. The hard drives are usually pretty large and can store a lot of video. The main problem is that the well-known video editing programs seem to have difficulty (right now) editing the video shot with these camcorders, so you need to rely on the bundled software (which is usually lacking compared to the better quality video editing software). One other issue is that, although never needed to swap out media is nice, if you fill up your HD while on vacation, you have to decide to erase something or stop recording. You can't just buy a new DVD or tape.

And finally, there's the flash memory (or FM) type of camcorder. These camcorders use the same kind of SD cards that many digital cameras use and many of these camcorders can be bought at relatively inexpensive prices. Just remember that you generally "get what you pay for" so don't expect something outstanding if you only paid $100 or so for it. Still, this would be an excellent entry-level option for a child or teenager who wants to have a camcorder, since these are simple to use and won't break the bank.

That's about all I can say on camcorders. Hopefully it helped a little.

Wow. Thanks so much for that. Excellent info. I'm gonna have a chat with my wife, but I think that it sounds like mini-DVD is right for us just now. Cheers again.

Take a look at Consumer Reports

Good idea. I'll check that out.

[Ban Hammer 13,252]

ask almaty for advice, he knows all about which ones are good for "home movies"

[pedroh 21]

ask almaty for advice, he knows all about which ones are good for "home movies"

LOL