Which Camcorder to Buy (Full Version)

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Larry M. -> Which Camcorder to Buy (11/25/2007 12:08:09)

Hello Everyone,

Would appreciate any advice/comments on Camcorders. No professional use intended - just around home/area + to substantiate that my golf swing is totally without hope.

My wish list: High Definition $1000 U.S. +/-. I've looked online at a bewildering crop & read numerous reviews which all say (1) they are the greatest followed by, (2) they are worthless. Sony seems to do fairly well except for the concensus opinion that the included software is considerably lacking.

Oh, one more thing (and pardon my ignorance): MiniDV's seem to be popular but how does one play a 3" disc on a PC?

Thanks in advance [:D]



treetopsranch -> RE: Which Camcorder to Buy (11/25/2007 13:02:58)

quote:

how does one play a 3" disc on a PC?

Just pop it in your cd player. If you look closely at the tray you will see a 3 inch diameter grove. That is where it goes.



treetopsranch -> RE: Which Camcorder to Buy (11/25/2007 13:09:21)

10 Things you should know before you buy a HD video camera.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/shooting-high_def/10-things-to-know-when-buying-an-hd-camcorder-320011.php



treetopsranch -> RE: Which Camcorder to Buy (11/25/2007 13:15:46)

And one more bit of advice:

Don't buy a video camera that uses a disc. The video is compressed (degraded) and when you transfer it to your PC to edit you get that degraded video to work with. Mini tape was the best for consumer cams for editing but is slowly loosing out to hard drive and solid state memory devices.



Larry M. -> RE: Which Camcorder to Buy (11/25/2007 13:56:59)

Don,

Thanks muchly for the tips.

The one about the mini-discs was staring me in the face from both my open cd/dvd drives, but that's now moot because of your comment on the degraded video result.

The www.gizmodo.com review favored the Panasonic HDC-SD1 which I'll investigate right away. I may have to set my sights higher, price-wise, since the old wish list has many scratch throughs and has been narrowed down, as a result, to a camcorder with High Definition/Hard Drive. Oh, well [8D]

Any other comments, suggestions welcome!




Larry M. -> RE: Which Camcorder to Buy (11/25/2007 14:14:32)

The Review on the Panasonic HDC-SD1 surfaced, like my other heretofore futile searches, several weak points per below. Any work arounds? Any camera with HD/HD specs that doesn't have these (serious) limitations?


<----Snip >The weakest point of the package is the bare-bones bundled software. It forces you to copy the footage from SD card to the hard drive before it lets you watch it, and you cannot pick and choose what gets copied - it's all or nothing. Once on the hard drive, you can't even watch the video in full screen.

Another significant weakness is current playback support for AVCHD video. You can burn it to the DVD, but it won't play in regular DVD player - you'll need a Blu-Ray player, and bundled software does not let you convert <----Snip>



treetopsranch -> RE: Which Camcorder to Buy (11/25/2007 16:03:21)

Yes Larry, Lots of limitations with trying to do HD video for now. Do you have the patience to wait another year? Blue ray drives may come down in price by then, and better/cheaper software for handling HD Video editing.

I have read reports of using standard format DV then up-converting it to HD. Some users report great results if using the proper up-converting software/hardware. That may be the best way to go until HD video recording is really ready for the casual video enthusiast.

I frequent the following video forum for the latest on HD video:

http://www.pana3ccduser.com/

It favors Panasonic but has info on all video stuff.




Larry M. -> RE: Which Camcorder to Buy (11/25/2007 16:29:23)

quote:

Do you have the patience to wait another year? Blue ray drives may come down in price by then, and better/cheaper software for handling HD Video editing.


Don,

I've got "the itch" but this seems like good advice especially in view of the unsettled AVCHD/Blue Ray format issue. The TV corollary is I jumped (first kid on the block, etc.) at LCD when it first came out and wish I had waited for the HDMI cable equipped models [:(]

Right now the Sony HDR-SR7 is my top pick if I have to capitulate. May not.

Appreciate your input, as usual [:)]



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