I want to buy a camcorder, but...............

jetskidia

I recently bought a Hitachi Camcorder but had to sell it because I couldnt get any recording off the camcorder and on to my pc, let alone do any editing if I had got it off

Can someone please recommend a camcorder that uses or comes with software that even someone as technophobic as me would be able to use
I dont have any problem using a camcorder, I just have a problem doing something with what I have filmed

Are these "pistol" type camcorders any good?
The ones similar to the Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1000 pistol-grip camcorder.

Forgetting budget, which camcorder would you suggest, ideally the cheaper no frills option would be fine

penrhyn

What was the problem with the Hitachi? You usually just connect your firewire cable between the Camcorder and the PC fire up Windows Movie Maker and off you go.

Being a bit of a Luddite I'd stick with a mini DV (tape) camcorder, probably a Canon.

Millionaire

I think alot of confusion tends to be Manufacturers not including a firewire cable with the camcorder and instead just a USB to download the photos if they have that option.

Then you get people trying to download video via USB and its not compatible to do it that way.

jetskidia

penrhyn wrote: »

What was the problem with the Hitachi? You usually just connect your firewire cable between the Camcorder and the PC fire up Windows Movie Maker and off you go.

Being a bit of a Luddite I'd stick with a mini DV (tape) camcorder, probably a Canon.

The Hitachi didnt have a firewire socket and the format it recorded in was not compatable with WMM:mad:

BillScarab

A lot of modern camcorders don't use Firewire they use USB instead. Having said that although my Panasonic SD10 has USB it writes to memory card and it's much simpler to just stick that in the PC.

I haven't tried editing the footage from mine yet but it creates videos in AVCHD format which Windows Movie Maker will read, as will iMovie on a Mac I believe.

I think most if not all of the consumer HD camcorders create footage in AVCHD so any of them should be OK.

it's always worth goolging a particular model before you buy it though to check for any potential issues.