After a camcorder

OLS

Wonder if anyone can point me in the direction of a good camcorder. Budget is £150 - £200. Its only needed to film bits on holiday and my son growing up so doesnt have to be full of gidgets and gadgets, I would prefer a lightweight compact one but I know these are sometimes more expensive.

I dont know what kinds best (i.e miniDV, DVD, SD or HD) although Ive been told the DVD ones are prob worst to go for as no editing, and only short time to film per disc.

So hit me...............

stamford

http://www.jessops.com/Store/s48694/1-170-171/Home/Camcorders/Digital-Camcorders/Canon/DC201-DVD-Camcorder/details.aspx

£199.99 less £40 cashback from Canon

OK_Sauce

I personally would go for minidv. Especially for home video stuff. If you want to edit it's still the most flexible format. Also once recorded you you never need to reuse the tapes -just buy new ones, they're so cheap nowadays. I think you'd be hard pushed to get an HD camcorder for your budget, though.

OLS

Thanks - ill go for a miniDV one then. I was thinking of heading that way anyway because of the HD ones being more expensive, the DVD ones being a problem for editing and length recordable on disc etc and the SD ones, again if you want a huge GB card its the expense.

So what are the best makes to look for within my budget?

These are a few I was looking at.....any good?

JVC

CANON

PANASONIC

CANON 2

donnajunkie

for that budget your best bet is a mini dv. you can definitely get one by either samsung or jvc in that price range and my experience of both brands is good. you may be able to get a sony one for that amount. i dont know about other brands.

OK_Sauce

They all look good. Forget the digital zooms, they're next to useless. The higher the optical zoom the better though.

donnajunkie

i agree digital zoom is rubbish. i guess top of the range camcorders may have decent digital zoom but otherwise dont worry about that. aim for a minimum optical zoom of 15times. mine has 25times but my previous one had 16times and that was good enough. of course the higher the better i suppose but you probably wont need to use the full amount of zoom very often.