Which type of camcorder

vansboy

choccyface2006 wrote: »

he has a 42in plasma too so its quite important to get good picture quality

& now you've mentioned that, you could spend even MORE £$£$ & get HD standard (tape), assuming the TV is HD ready!!

But you'd part with £600+!!

VB

matty2767

mini dv is the better quality than dvd. the compression used to wirte to a dvd which can store 4.7Gb is more than a tape which goes to 13Gb. i dont know how much a hard drive one costs but at 20Gb you are only going to get a tape and a half on it at mini dv quality. there is no searching for points on your tape either because it remembers where you are and indexes itself as well. my mini dv camcorder also has a touchscreen lcd.

choccyface2006

vansboy wrote: »

& now you've mentioned that, you could spend even MORE £$£$ & get HD standard (tape), assuming the TV is HD ready!!

But you'd part with £600+!!

VB

:eek: :eek: Thats alot of money! :eek: :eek:

Yes, its HD ready but at that price we would have to REALLY want one. At the moment is been just a thought but maybe we will borrow one for our forthcoming holiday and then consider all the options again afterwards.

Thanks

Sarah

richleeds

are HD camcorders and DVD camcorders region free or are they still made in NTSC and PAL variants?

matty2767

they are region free.

ntsc and pal arent the same thing as region coding. they are to do with the number of lines and the rate they are displyed on the tv. pal is generally the uk standard and ntsc the usa.

richleeds

thanks for the reply

i guess my question should have been are dvd and hard drive camcorders still sold in ntsc and pal variants as mini dv ones are? Or are dvd and solid state universal formats?

or.....im in the USA next week, any issues with buying a hard drive sony to use over here?

thanks

Dunkyboy_2

Choccyface,
i have just gone through the same process of buying are first ever camcorder, and this is what we ended up with.
Bought from amazon cause i wanted piece of mind if i wanted to send it back.
Sony DCR-HC37 handycam Mini DV £148.94
Pack of 10 sony 60min tapes £9.35
Sony NPFH50.CE spare battery £33.13
Sony LCS VAD-9 camera bag £11.99

Prices exclude VAT and P&P.
Delivery very fast.
Conclusion.....
I can't quite believe how good this camera is (considering the price- i usually believe that you get what you pay for) but this tiny camera is fantastic, it is easy to use, the colours fantastic, sound ok and can play it back on TV -dead easy.
You will not be dissapointed with this camera.
I have nothing to gauge this camera against, but having read other reviews i can only agree that for the money this is a superb camcorder, and you don't need to spend hours in front of a PC afterwards (if you don't want to), but i think you can transfer your films to a PC - i may be wrong there so check if it's important.
hope this helps.

aliwatts

Have just gone right through this thread as we are looking to buy our first camcorder and was thinking of HDD but am really not sure now. Looks like Dv seem to be the best, certainly in quality. This might sound like a daft question aswell but can you take still images with a DV camcorder too? Thanks

Anybody know of any great deals at the moment?

Millionaire

aliwatts wrote: »

Have just gone right through this thread as we are looking to buy our first camcorder and was thinking of HDD but am really not sure now. Looks like Dv seem to be the best, certainly in quality. This might sound like a daft question aswell but can you take still images with a DV camcorder too? Thanks

Anybody know of any great deals at the moment?

Yes, if the option is available in the camera spec.

Normally its saved to a SD or flash card which you put into the camcorder and then take them from there.

HDD consumer cameras are in their infancy at the moment but they are improving all the time and more and more are coming out.

aliwatts

Anybody know of any great deals at the moment?