Pocket camcorder v regular camcorder

rinroo

Hope this is posted in the right place,

I already own a sony DCR-HC24 but its quite a few years old and takes tapes, which is something i'm keen to move away from!

We're off to florida in a few weeks and I want a decent comcorder to take. However I still want something which is really small. I'll be filming parades, kids on rides usual stuff, but nothing more than about 1-2hours a day max, we're there for 3 weeks - not sure if
thats relevant or not

I know absolutely nothing about camcorders to be honest, I just want it tape/cd free and small, I know nothing about zoom, optical, digital, HD non HD...you get the picture?

I've been looking at the pocket camcorders which are tiny but not sure how many hours i'll get from one and what the recording quality will be like - do I need a regular camcorder?

paddyrg

The problem with moving away from tape is that you need to record onto *something*, and memory cards are expensive. If you are also taking a laptop with you, you can back up to hard drive, but it is not as convenient as just loading in a new tape, and being able to buy a spare on site if needed.

santer_2

My Sony DCR-PC120E outperforms (noticeably) my Sony TGR3E with the possible exception of still images

Marty999

I bought a Panasonic pocket camcorder recently, it fits in my pocket and I'm very pleased with it.

Fieldy86

Memory cards aren't too expensive if bought through many places like EBay & Amazon, also, try and get one for free when purchasing, I did.

Gers

I recently bought this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creative-Definition-Pocket-Camcorder-cable/dp/B003FMTY48/ref=sr_1_28?ie=UTF8&qid=1314518143&sr=8-28 (comes in different colours as well as black and comes in 8GB version too) and it's been outstanding!

The other week I used it to record a couple of colleagues giving papers at a conference and the quality is good. It just connects to the laptop via the built in USB bit so I uploaded to it inbetween them presenting. Very quick and easy. Now I have uploaded them to DVD and can really recommend this little lovely. Truly a pocket camcorder.

The reason I didn't choose the more well known Flip is that Cisco are about to stop (or have already stopped) producing and therefore supporting them.

rinroo

Marty999 wrote: »

I bought a Panasonic pocket camcorder recently, it fits in my pocket and I'm very pleased with it.

Roughly how many hours recording do you reckon you'll get from this?

spakkker

You really need a camcorder that takes SD cards for a holiday.
Check that the cam can record in different video modes - eg. hd60, hd, vga etc. This means in lower quality settings you will get much more time recorded.
I have a Flip hd - useless for holidays - and kodak zx1 which takes AA rechargables and sd card - 12.5 mins/GB in HD30 and ~50min in vga mode.
Also get one that takes stills !! A very useful feature.
Check out youtube for video samples of whatever you consider buying.

john-306

Some of the compact cameras now do excellent HD video, I went from a Sony mini dv to a Panasonic TZ7 and while it ain't quite up to the same standard for videos, it is very close and obviously I don't have to carry around both a camera and a camcorder so I've never used the Sony since

Marty999

rinroo wrote: »

Roughly how many hours recording do you reckon you'll get from this?

As spakker says, the amount of recording time you get depends on which quality setting you have selected. I am shooting at 720-30p which is the 4th highest quality setting, and my 8Gb SD card will hold 100 minutes of video. If you shoot at the highest quality of 1080-60i, an 8Gb card will hold only 40 minutes. The figures will reduce of course if you shoot a lot of still photos too.

rinroo

john-306 wrote: »

Some of the compact cameras now do excellent HD video, I went from a Sony mini dv to a Panasonic TZ7 and while it ain't quite up to the same standard for videos, it is very close and obviously I don't have to carry around both a camera and a camcorder so I've never used the Sony since

I already own a FZ38 (lumix) and have been considering the new panasonic TZ20 for that reason and because I want a smaller camera to take...

Marty999 wrote: »

As spakker says, the amount of recording time you get depends on which quality setting you have selected. I am shooting at 720-30p which is the 4th highest quality setting, and my 8Gb SD card will hold 100 minutes of video. If you shoot at the highest quality of 1080-60i, an 8Gb card will hold only 40 minutes. The figures will reduce of course if you shoot a lot of still photos too.

Thanks for this, so even if I shoot at a lower quality setting, i'm going to need a lot of SD cards...

Argh what to do..