Camcorders from £82.24 including delivery

ChemicalBrother_2

I keep all my Digital 8 stuff on Digital 8 tapes and my parents do the same with MiniDV. It costs a bit but that way you keep the quality - MPEG2 is, after all a lossy compression! In a couple of years when hard drives are even cheaper I'll transfer all the stuff over (or put it on HD-DVD/Blu-Ray or whatever - as data probably).

Poppy9

I bought a Samsung VP-D20 Digital Camcorder in Aug 04 when it was on offer with Boots. Think I paid about £159 with an extra £30 of Boots points too. This was thanks to a MSE tip.

Bbeen really pleased with it. Very compact and good quality picture and sound.

timm_2

Morgan are very well respected - no problems there.

planetf1

Interesting... I have 17 old Hi8 tapes and the ancient camcorder is struggling - getting quite a few flashing white streaks. I've continued and captured the footage to DVD, but I know it's not good enough as it could be.

I did successfully clean up the video on the PC, but it takes as long to do 1 1/2 hours than to copy the entire 17 tapes via a DVD recorder!

So get a new Hi8 recorder to play... maybe.. unless anyone can suggest a cheaper source of something that will play Hi8 tapes (of course there's ebay....)

cheapskate58

planetf1 wrote:

Interesting... I have 17 old Hi8 tapes and the ancient camcorder is struggling - getting quite a few flashing white streaks. I've continued and captured the footage to DVD, but I know it's not good enough as it could be.

I did successfully clean up the video on the PC, but it takes as long to do 1 1/2 hours than to copy the entire 17 tapes via a DVD recorder!

So get a new Hi8 recorder to play... maybe.. unless anyone can suggest a cheaper source of something that will play Hi8 tapes (of course there's ebay....)

How about getting a digital 8 camcorder? £183 for this one but you may find others cheaper

http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/82410/art/sony/digital8-camcorder-dcr-tr.html#


This will record digitally and let you playback your old Hi 8 tapes as well. Mine works fine, although I've transferred my old Hi 8s to DVD without any noticeable loss in quality, viewed on a 32" widescreen

ChemicalBrother_2

cheapskate58 wrote:

This will record digitally and let you playback your old Hi 8 tapes as well. Mine works fine, although I've transferred my old Hi 8s to DVD without any noticeable loss in quality, viewed on a 32" widescreen

You shouldn't notice any loss in quality if you've used a good MPEG2 encoder and used a high quality setting. It's only when you wish to (re)edit the footage in the future when the problems arise as each generation will be worse (a bit like copying an analogue video to another analogue video).

Still, a lot of people won't notice - it's all down to what you like.

Jefft_2

ant2006 wrote:

DVD-R's lose their data integrety after a couple of years & you could end up unable to play them all together.

And DV tapes don't??

I know what I would rather trust.

Jeff

aj2001

Can I request that you can tell me whats the best editing software hardware and then whats best to make a home dvd with nice menus etc, thanks
aj

raymond

ant2006 wrote:

DVD-R's lose their data integrety after a couple of years & you could end up unable to play them all together.

What total garbage, where did you "hear" that one.

Recordable DVD's will be useable long after your magnetic tapes have either fallen apart or totally degraded.

I have VHS tapes less than 5 years old that are unplayable yet DVD's of the same age or older are fine.

truffle

i'm a novice with camcorders and am looking to buy my first - i have used one before - an NDV-DS15 (?) panosonici think?

I have heard of 'firewire' but am unsure of what it means - is it the same as DV in/out.

I dont mind having a camera that is not 'cutting edge' so i think these cheap and cheerful ones would be suitable. Does anyone have any good & simple links to camcorder guides?