Camcorder advice please

BigDee2

Hi

I have a 8year old miniDV camcorder but want to change it to something better.

Can anyone suggest a decent camcorder which I can take on a 3 week family holiday soon to Florida?

If its got full HD, that would be great.

I guess the choice for storage is either onto an in-built HDD or memory card, but I don't don't know what the pros and cons are for each of them.
What's the max capacity for a memory card and the best place to purchase?

I've seen a Panasonic HDC-HS20EB in Costco for ~£423.
Don't know much about about it and not sure it's worth it as there are other cheaper camcorders (pocket type).
The camcorder would need to have a good long battery life.

This camcorder has a 80Gb HDD but unsure roughly how many hours of full HD footage can be recorded?
As I may not have access to a laptop whilst on holiday how would I store the movies should I go beyond the HDD capacity?
If I manage to borrow a laptop from a cousin, would that help?

I have also seen the JVC GZ-HD300 with 60Gb HDD for £352 at Costco.

Thanks.

BillScarab

I bought a Panasonic HDC-SD10 at Christmas and have been happy with it. It records in 1080i HD and uses memory cards for storage. There is a version with some built in memory for a little more called the TM10. You can get the SD10 for £280 and the TM10 for £300 on Amazon.

Personally I would always go for a camcorder that uses memory cards now as if you are on holiday somewhere like Florida and run out of space you can easily buy an extra card.

coolagarry

Some good reviews here that might help

http://www.pcw.co.uk/products/hardware/digital-cameras

BigDee2

Thanks for your advice BillScarab & coolagarry.
I like the look of the Panasonic HDC-SD10.

I've seen 32Gb memory cards for around £50. So two of these would give me more storage than a 60Gig HDD camcorder! not bad

What's the battery life like on the Panasonic HDC-SD1?
How easy is it to get hold of extra batteries? I think I may have long days in Orlando when I'll be filming and don't want to run out of juice.

Finally, would it be worth buying it from Gatwick Duty Free or even from the US? assuming they sell it. Anyway fo finding out?

Regards.

Bowling_4_Gold

Looking at the Dixons website (there is a branch at Gatwick), they seem to stock the Panasonic SD10 for £357. It is a bit more than online retailers, but they supposedly price match Amazon and John Lewis, so don't know if you can ask them to price match Amazon. It gives you the convienience though of being able to pick it up at the airport. Just a thought.

BigDee2

Hi Bowling_4_Gold,

Thanks. I didn't know about the Dixons Tax Free online shop.
I'll take a look.

Regards.

BillScarab

I'm not sure how long the battery lasts as I haven't used it for any long days yet. You can buy additional batteries, including much higher capacity ones. I think you have to buy Panasonic original ones though as they've done something with the firmware on theire digicams and camcorders to stop third party batteries working.