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Can any1 recommend a good camcorder?

emweaver
emweaver Posts: 8,419 Forumite
in Techie Stuff
For our holidays the last 2 ive owned were absolute rubbish.

I want 1 with a good pic quality and long battery life. Our last samsung only lasted for 15 mins of recording!

I dont care if its DVD or HDD. Can anyone recommend which is better between the 2 formats?

Also, can anyone recommend what to buy and / or what not to buy?
Wins so far this year: Mum to be bath set, follow me Domino Dog, Vital baby feeding set, Spiderman goody bag, free pack of Kiplings cakes, £15 love to shop voucher, HTC Desire, Olive oil cooking spray, Original Source Strawberry Shower Gel, Garnier skin care hamper, Marc Jacobs fragrance.
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Comments

  • mymatebob
    mymatebob Posts: 2,199 Forumite
    Personally I would go for hard disc.

    Easier to transfer to pc/mac but it really depends what you want to do with the material

    My mate has a brilliant Sony High Def model which is simply stunning.
    Surround sound as well, but then he is into that sort of thing.

    He always carries a spare battery.

    Depends how much you want to spend I guess as there are a lot of models out there now.

    Try and have a play with some to see if you like the feel of any particular one.
  • emweaver
    emweaver Posts: 8,419 Forumite
    I have about £400 to spend, not sure if thats good or not.
    Wins so far this year: Mum to be bath set, follow me Domino Dog, Vital baby feeding set, Spiderman goody bag, free pack of Kiplings cakes, £15 love to shop voucher, HTC Desire, Olive oil cooking spray, Original Source Strawberry Shower Gel, Garnier skin care hamper, Marc Jacobs fragrance.
  • weegie.geek
    weegie.geek Posts: 3,432 Forumite
    You'll get a decent one for that. You might be able to get an extended battery as well.


    If you're choosing between DVD and HDD I'd go for HDD, but there's absolutely no reason not to choose tape.

    I'd choose tape over either DVD or HDD tbh. DV is much easier to edit than heavily compressed MPEG2. MPEG2 wasn't designed to be edited, its structure isn't conducive to frame-accurate cuts and with the relatively low bitrate (and the one-pass realtime encoding) there'll be much more blockiness than you'd see from a DV camera.

    With a budget of £400 I'd look to spend £300 on the camera and the other £100 on tapes, a case for it all, and an extended battery.
    They say it's genetic, they say he can't help it, they say you can catch it - but sometimes you're born with it
  • emweaver
    emweaver Posts: 8,419 Forumite
    What si mini DV? I know I sound thick lol
    Wins so far this year: Mum to be bath set, follow me Domino Dog, Vital baby feeding set, Spiderman goody bag, free pack of Kiplings cakes, £15 love to shop voucher, HTC Desire, Olive oil cooking spray, Original Source Strawberry Shower Gel, Garnier skin care hamper, Marc Jacobs fragrance.
  • emweaver
    emweaver Posts: 8,419 Forumite
    weegie.geek wrote: »
    You'll get a decent one for that. You might be able to get an extended battery as well.


    If you're choosing between DVD and HDD I'd go for HDD, but there's absolutely no reason not to choose tape.

    I'd choose tape over either DVD or HDD tbh. DV is much easier to edit than heavily compressed MPEG2. MPEG2 wasn't designed to be edited, its structure isn't conducive to frame-accurate cuts and with the relatively low bitrate (and the one-pass realtime encoding) there'll be much more blockiness than you'd see from a DV camera.

    With a budget of £400 I'd look to spend £300 on the camera and the other £100 on tapes, a case for it all, and an extended battery.

    Are there any brands / specific one you recommend? I assume your talking from experience
    Wins so far this year: Mum to be bath set, follow me Domino Dog, Vital baby feeding set, Spiderman goody bag, free pack of Kiplings cakes, £15 love to shop voucher, HTC Desire, Olive oil cooking spray, Original Source Strawberry Shower Gel, Garnier skin care hamper, Marc Jacobs fragrance.
  • mymatebob
    mymatebob Posts: 2,199 Forumite
    Mini-DV is just a tape format, like VHS, Beta, VHS-C etc etc.

    Probably cheaper as more people appear to be opting for a "tapeless" solution
  • emweaver
    emweaver Posts: 8,419 Forumite
    Im not a very techie person so transfering from Mini-DV to a dvd sounds a bit daunting to me.
    Wins so far this year: Mum to be bath set, follow me Domino Dog, Vital baby feeding set, Spiderman goody bag, free pack of Kiplings cakes, £15 love to shop voucher, HTC Desire, Olive oil cooking spray, Original Source Strawberry Shower Gel, Garnier skin care hamper, Marc Jacobs fragrance.
  • nickj_2
    nickj_2 Posts: 7,052 Forumite
    the new flip v/c has got good reviews
    very cheap and easy to use - doesn't do hd tho
    www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/221234/?camp_id=ppc_google_products_flip_video
  • emweaver
    emweaver Posts: 8,419 Forumite
    thanks but its to take on holiday so need one with a larger memory
    Wins so far this year: Mum to be bath set, follow me Domino Dog, Vital baby feeding set, Spiderman goody bag, free pack of Kiplings cakes, £15 love to shop voucher, HTC Desire, Olive oil cooking spray, Original Source Strawberry Shower Gel, Garnier skin care hamper, Marc Jacobs fragrance.
  • mymatebob
    mymatebob Posts: 2,199 Forumite
    There are a couple of Sony ones (HDD ones that is) on Amazon for under £300 that look pretty good.

    You may well be able to get them cheaper elsewhere but I just had a quick browse
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