The Daisy Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 Well, my wife and I are going to start building a house very soon, and I think it's time to purchase a camcorder. Here's my "practical" choice at this point. Panasonic PV-DV953 Here's my "dream" camcorder choice. Panasonic AG-DVX100A The first camcorder looks to have a great deal of very good features, plus being able to record to MPEG4 on the fly would seem to be a very good feature. The second camcorder... **shiver**.... has progressive scan capability. I can only imagine how great that would work with with my projector. Has anyone bought a camcorder recently? If so, what model? Thanks in advance, Glen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam P Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 I bought one recently. I got a Canon ZR80 to get me into the digital camcorder world. It's much cheaper than what you're looking at, but I love it. In my research, I found that if you didn't need still camera capability (I didn't), the lower-end DV Cams have better value. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTello Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 I almost crapped my pants when I saw the price of your "practical camera" Glen. I'm actually looking to get a camera as well, and when I saw your post I was thinking, oh this could be helpful in my search. But apparently our needs are far different. Actually I'd love one of those cameras, but I could not justify the price to the significant other. Although, the price of the cheaper one did come up under $1000 when I checked Pricegrabber. Anyway, GL, and throw up a video clip for us when you've bought your camera. :tu: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foogledricks Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 I am in the market too. I could care less about stills. I'd love to get a 16:9 model. Though that seems unlikely. I'm holding out for a few more months before I have to make my decision. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam P Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 Originally posted by kfredericks@Apr 25 2004, 09:52 PM I am in the market too. I could care less about stills. I'd love to get a 16:9 model. Though that seems unlikely. I'm holding out for a few more months before I have to make my decision. My ZR80 has 16 x 9 capability. It might be right up your alley. Do check out this site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angel P Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 Upon finding out that we have another Yankee prospect in the bullpen, I thought it was time for a camcorder myself. 8) I've narrowed it down to two models. The Canon ZR90 and the Sony HC-30. Both run around $600. I've been doing some homework on Camcorderinfo.com and picking up issues of Camcorder & Computer Video magazine but haven't made a decision yet. I don't care much for stills (already have a 3.5 megapixel camera) but want the camcorder which produces the best images under low-light situations (for the price). Oh, and it must be compatible with iMovie. Sam, how is the low-light image on your zr80? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Daisy Posted April 26, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 Well, the thing that I want is a 3 CCD model. Also, 16 X 9 mode is a pretty big feature to me. I really don't care about the still capability, as I'll be buying a digital camera at some point this year as well. I'll take a look at the Canon model and see what it's like. Thanks, Glen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam P Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 Sam, how is the low-light image on your zr80? It's certainly acceptable, but not as good as some others. I don't spend much time shooting in low-light so it doesn't affect me much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rustyjaw Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 A few companies have announced 720p cameras, which I suspect will be the next big thing. I think Panasonic was the first, but according to a friend of mine that reviews cameras and pro video gear, it's not quite up to snuff. I think he has since acquired review models of a couple others, I'll have to ask him what he thinks. He has a site where he posts DV related info, it's quite well known in the industry (and quite technical): http://www.adamwilt.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam P Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 The biggest problem with Hi-Def stuff, I would think, is the file sizes. Regular DV material isn't small and DVDs don't hold enough for hi-def. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam P Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 Great link, Ed! Looks like my camera (and most) don't shoot in "real" 16 x 9; scanlines are lost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rustyjaw Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 Yeah, I don't think it's time to move into HD for the general consumer, but I don't think it's far away. Storage costs are so low, soon Hitachi will be shipping a 400GB drive, more people can display HD content than ever before...but portability is a problem. Right now, it's easy to burn your footage into a DVD that almost anyone can view, but with HD, you would have to show it either directly from a computer or from the camera. But I suspect by the time you are ready for your next camera, HD will be the norm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Daisy Posted April 26, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 Yep. That's my thought as well. HD would be great now, but I think I can wait for the technology to be refined a bit. Also, today's reason that I really love my wife... well it's not the only reason... but you know where I'm going with it. I sent her the info on the PV-DV953 camcorder from Panasonic, and she says..... "That's a good price." What a woman! Glen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Camp Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 Here are a couple sites I used when researching a video camera purchase: http://www.camcorderinfo.com/ http://www.dv.com/ http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/ (great forums) I'm a big fan of the Canon GL2 & Sony TRV950. These are both "prosumer" video cameras that are fairly rugged, have good optics and manual controls. With a little shopping (Ebay) you can get a TRV950 for ~$1200 and a GL2 for ~$1600. Don't foget to budget in a nice editing suite too. That's more important than the camera, IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foogledricks Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 Looks like my camera (and most) don't shoot in "real" 16 x 9; scanlines are lost. Yeah, I was going to mention this. There are almost no 'true' 16x9 sub $1,000 cameras. There are few though. Here are a few 'true' 16:9 consumer cameras: Sony PDX10 Sony PC330 Sony DVD300 Sony TRV80 Canon Xi JVC GR-D200 JVC GR-HD1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rustyjaw Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 My boyfriend and I had a TRV900, the predecessor to the 950 and it's a good camera. It's one of the 3CCD cameras so it's color is quite nice. We rarely used it so we sold it, but then less than a year later I bought a Mac with a DVD-R drive and suddenly a video camera became more useful, being that I now had a format to output and distribute footage on. So we got a TRV650. which does not have 3CCDs, but has decent image quality, just not the really rich color of the 900. One nice feature of the 650 is that it transcodes in real-time, so I can input an analog signal to the camera, and it will spit out DV over the FireWire connection. Sony sells a dedicated box for this that costs $400, so having it built into a camera is nice. It's really useful for capturing older VHS stuff to the computer to edit and save. You can even use it as a makeshift DVR, record TV directly to your computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce B Posted June 22, 2008 Report Share Posted June 22, 2008 I have a camcorder in my closet that I never use. I just dont want the hassle. There were plenty of times I wish I had one though. Anyone have one of these? I would use this because Its not cumbersome. http://www.amazon.com/Flip-Video-Camcorder-Minutes-Black/dp/B0016BXRB6/ref=dsp_adv_203808024 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starhawk Posted June 22, 2008 Report Share Posted June 22, 2008 Bruce, they are becoming very popular. I dont have one, but I keep hearing great things about them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce B Posted June 23, 2008 Report Share Posted June 23, 2008 Well, I ordered one. Cant really go wrong for the price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbert Posted June 23, 2008 Report Share Posted June 23, 2008 Keep us posted, Bruce. I've been tempted to buy one too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce B Posted June 23, 2008 Report Share Posted June 23, 2008 Keep us posted, Bruce. I've been tempted to buy one too. Okay, It will be here Wednesday. I love Amazon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PHiL Posted June 23, 2008 Report Share Posted June 23, 2008 Keep us posted, Bruce. I've been tempted to buy one too. :iagree Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce B Posted June 25, 2008 Report Share Posted June 25, 2008 Well got the lil Flip Cam and its pretty slick. I literally was able to use it in 30 seconds. So simple, even a caveman can do it. I'll post my stupid little video I took outside in a little while. I love that you can just pop it in to any usb port or right to your tv. No software needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce B Posted June 26, 2008 Report Share Posted June 26, 2008 Fiddled with the camera some more. Very easy to upload to Youtube. I did notice a drastic difference in quality though saving it to my pc as compared to the uploaded version to youtube. Is that normal? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbert Posted June 26, 2008 Report Share Posted June 26, 2008 Yep, youtube's video quality is shite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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