Cheap Aldi Digital Video Camera - worth buying?

zod

Seeing as I know nothing about these camcorders , is this thing worth buying for holiday vids etc ?

http://www.aldi.ie/special_buys2/productnl_221.html

TerrorFirmer

I had one, great for the price.

But, don't mistake it for a "real" camcorder. It takes videos during the daytime fine, but at evening or night time the quality is pathetic. Even as it is, in good conditions, the quality is just barely average with 640x480 resolution - grand for mucking about but not ideal for taping anything major - don't rely on this at your friends wedding or anything

The pictures it takes are good. Built in flash - overall good quality images. Doubles up as a webcam which is great and takes SD cards, which aldi always sell fairly cheap when they sell the camcorder too.

So, good for the price, very compact and tidy, but don't be expecting too much from it...you'll love it. I did but unfortunately never used it at all and sold it for fifty euro awhile ago here on boards...:)

zod

thanks ..
quick Q
is this one a bit better than the previous available one ? it's 5M Pixels ..

Also how much video time can you capture at full res on a 2GB SD card ?

TerrorFirmer

The video is the same, the still image resolution yeah I noticed is alot better this time around. It was 2MP or at best 3MP last time....

I was able to capture about 45 minutes of video on mine on a 1gb SD card, at 640x480 at fine quality....there are different qualites as well as resolution...

zod

ok .. thanks mobile

Simon201

Well in my opinion 20 or 30 euro extra would get you something like a Fuji E550 from eBay (yeah like mine!) which would enable you to take great still pics but also movie avi's (640x480 and as long as will fit on your memory card) which are not a whole lot different from full quality DV camera footage.

christophicus

So is 640x480 the highest resolution this camera will record in??

Tazz T

I managed to get one of these for my hols yesterday. The queues were mad for them in Finglas, so I'd doubt there's any left. Very good price at 170 for the camera and the 1 gig card. There's 4 rechargeable batteries (camera takes just two) and a charger which was a bonus.

I've only had a little playing around with it but I reckon the video is of a very good quality. I was also surprised by the size of the camera - it's tiny, which was a bonus. Where it falls down in my opinion is in still shots. You really have to hold the camera steady to get good pics. Don't know if this is down to the exposure time or what but a lot of the images are blurred round the edges.

As long as you realise it's an entry level camera, then it's worth the money.

patmac

Is this a better deal?
http://cgi.ebay.ie/NEW-12MP-Video-Camcorder-Digital-Camera-MP3-F-L_W0QQitemZ7623592781QQcategoryZ20333QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting

zod

really happy with the camera so far .. great for messing around

Only thing my sister uses a Mac and when she tries to open them she gets

"Windows Media Player cannot play this file because the Player does not suport this codec"

anybody know how to fix?

LaVidaLoca

Leaving it back tonight.

Quality was mobile-phone tastic. Most digital cameras will do video as well, so just get one of those.

This is really bad as a still camera and friggin pathetic as a video camera (not EVEN Youtube quality). Not even worth 99 bones. Avoid.

ultain

Speaking of cameras, any one know where i could buy a cheap dv camera, as in something like an unwanted gift etc, havent a whole lot of coins to spend, 150e tops, i'm in galway. Anything half decent and i'll take it.