Camcorder advice

Valentia

Having been mad into video years ago I have been concentrating on photography since then. I am looking for a video camcorder and it sure has moved on since my days at it. Can anyone recommend a few sites that explain the advantages and disadvantages of present formats - DVD recording, hard disk and mini DV. I'd imagine for editing on a computer Mini DV is the way to go but I'm not sure.

I'm also interested in a camera that does WS. Up to €800 to spend.

Thanks for any assistance.

joeblogg1

Im not really an expert but have been reading up lately as I was looking at buying a new camcorder

In the end I went for the Sony SR90E hard disk camcorder only last week so too soon to tell how great it will be

It cost me €1,040 in Power City, similar to price on the web from UK (Sony Liffey Valley quoted price was € 1,260

From what I have read Mini DV is very slightly better quality possibly than hard disk and hard disk is well ahead of DVD.

I decided to go for the hard disk to avoid having tapes, dvds etc

The Sony SR90E records in Mpeg2 which I can transfer directly onto the pc and then open in my video editing software straight away. The JVC hard disk ones record in some other format which has to be converted to MPEG or something else before most editing packages will recognise it

Also the hard disk keeps finding free space to recotrd on until it is full and will then record no more until you free up space so there is no chance whatsoever of overwriting what you have already recorded

Valentia

Thanks a million for that joe. Very helpful.

Sarsfield

Sorry if this is just too basic for the AV editing board but I'm just looking for a regular camcorder for events/holidays etc. But I do hope to do a little video editing on my PC.

I'm a bit lost when it comes to the relative advantages of the recording media currently in use.

I've read on another board that 15 minutes of MiniDV can use 5Gig of hard disk, but a Hard Disk Camcorder with 30Gb will store hours & hours of footage. If I load this straight to the PC will it stay at 30Gig or what happens? An ordinary DVD stores 4.7Gb and is more than enough for a feature film & then some.

This has me thoroughly confused. Can anyone explain?

disneynasty

mini dv is higher quality so it takes up more space. i think 5 gig for 15 mins is an exageration though. when it's put onto dvd it's converted into a compressed file so it'll fit but the quality goes down. (you wouldn't be able to spot the difference unless your projecting the image on a large screen, or have a big big tv)

Lump

10 Gigs is 47 minutes at DVCAM 25 420 (Which is essentially Mini DV compression.

John

oiche99

Go mini dv, and opt for 3ccd. Panasonic do a wide range of small camcorders with this capability and are reasonably priced.... If money is no option, go for sony 2000 series or canon x2. Both are semi broadcast quality and the possess the essential 3ccd..

Valentia

The NV-GS 500 is on its way

Sarsfield

Thanks all. 3CCD & MiniDV would seem to be best. I just don't know if I need that level of quality. I'll do some price comparing and if there isn't a glaring difference between camcorders using different media I guess I'll opt for the MiniDV.