Best camcorder on the market?

hammymad

I'm really interested in buying a camcorder right now for use throughout the Summer really.
Only thing is, technoology isn't my strongest point so any help on choosing one would be greatly appreciated.
I'm looking for a relatively light camcorder, probably an SD camcorder with optical zoom.
My price range is probably around £250 or less. But the better quality for cheaper would be fab. :rotfl:
So if you guys can help me on the hunt for a camcorder, that would be much appreciated. :beer:
Thanks. :cool:

[Deleted User]

Search and you may find:

http://stuff.tv/Reviews/Cameras-Reviews/Camcorders-Reviews/
http://fwd.five.tv/gadget-show/bestbuys/camcorders/camcorders-memory-card
http://fwd.five.tv/gadget-show/bestbuys/camcorders/camcorders-flash-memory
http://www.trustedreviews.com/camcorders/

£250 won't get you the 'best camcorder on the market' either

Muppet81

Hi Hammymad,

I am not able to advise you as to a good camcorder but will let you know my experience so far. Like you I wanted to buy the best I could for the modest sum of under £300.

Researching the net suggested that the mini dv type were the easiest to edit. I want to be able to take clips, merge them into a whole and possibly add a title and music. Did not think this was an unreasonable aim.

I looked at a very basic mini dv Sony (HC51 - £156) but found that this was not recommeded for trying to upload to PC. I looked at the next one up , the HC62E (£244) as I saw posts where people said they had successfully uploaded clips and used them in Windows Movie Make to produce decent little films. Needed to buy a firewire though and mini tapes with this.

Went to Currys yesterday to buy the HC62E but they did not have that model. They said that the HDD ones were the ones to go for and easy to upload to PC, no need for extra wires to be bought or tapes of DVDs. Sounded good.

Bought the Sony HDD DCR-SR57E for £329.00 with 80GB HDD. Nice and neat, battery charged in just under 2 hours and claims a recording life of 45 to 60 mins.

All was well until I loaded the software - PMB. It was simple enough to upload the images and to set the correct format of PAL and create a DVD. But, you cannot merge the clips so you are left with a DVD with loads of short clips to watch one at a time. if I am wrong here and someone could correct me I would be thrilled.

No problem I thought, Just import the clips into Windows Movie Maker and do the job properly. I imported 3 of my 4 short clips OK but one would not import for some reason. I dragged them down to the storyboard and added a couple of transistions (fade in and out) between the clips. Thought it was going well till I trieed to save or play the storyboard. PC crashed every time. 5 hours later, I was tearing my hair out and in tears.

I searched on the internet and it seems that Windows XP and MPEGs (as PMB saves the clips) do not see eye to eye and it is unlikley that i will be able to create my little films as i had hoped.

So, I have spent £329 but the results are only similar to what I could produce on my reasonable quality Canon IXUS. i.e a seried of seperate short clips. OK I know the zoom is much better on a camcorder but I am really dissapointed and feel to miserable this morning. I did a lot of research but it all so confusing.

Hope this makes some sense and may help you in your choice.

Anyone any want a camcorder?????

roddydogs

Agree with above, my IXUS give as good results as my Sony camcorder, and you dont need a "Firewire" connection, of course the camcorder has better Zoom lens, and you can edit it better on Windows movie maker, but for the average short clips, its fine, you can get 31 mins on a 4 gb card!

Muppet81

I wish I could edit my camcorder clips on Movie maker. That is the big problem. I have spent over an hour on the Comet helpline this morning and the Sony Helpline and it has been no help.

I import MPeg clips into Windowm Movie Maker. I try to pull one down into the storyline and it shuts down and sometimes also freezes my PC so I have to re-boot.

I have spoken to the experts and they can't help so there is no chance of me being able to sort it alone.

Camcorder works fine, PMB software works but is so limited. Must be a setting on my PC but I have no idea what.

£320 poorer and really naffed of. Can anyone here suggest anything I can try?

PS have tried loading the MPEG2Coder as someone suggested on another post.