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Camcorder Help!

M

marketsons1985

Platinum Member
Hello all,
Here is my situation: I've been wanting a camcorder ever since I realized how crappy my parents one is. I'm in college now and have some extra money (about 300 dollars, give or take a bit) to spend on something, and I've semi-decided to get a video camera. I've been looking around, and have found not many cameras for 300 dollars or less. So I need some advice.

I found that Canon's Z series seems to be a fairly generic camera for what I need. CompUSA has the Z200 for 299 after a MIR. It's a MiniDV camera with 20x optical zoom, its full specs are here.

I only question how much I will use the camera. I know I'll have fun making videos for people, birthdays and such, and I'm leasing an apartment next summer so it would be good to have a video recorder to use when walking through the potential areas. But other than that I can't think of many things I'd need it for. I could save quite a bit of money, $150 or so, and buy a camcorder that records in MPEG-4 format, with a digital card.

I don't know how the quality is on the camcorders that record in MPEG-4, I've never had any experience with them. I wouldn't want to buy one that wouldn't do what I need it to do: produce quality video that I would be able to make my own DVDs with.

Thanks for all your help in advance!
 
just make sure it records to miniDV... from there you can put it on your computer... $300 isn't uch to spend on a camcorder... you really want a camera with 3 CCDs (Charge coupled device) they're the things that take in analogue video colors and record them to digital format. Most low end cameras have only 1 CCD, so you're recording all the color with one chip. You'll get alot better light levels with a 3CCD camera as well.
 
I have a miniDV camcorder and it's pretty decent. You can buy these from $200-300 easy. I have a Sharp VL-Z3. I picked it up last year for $350-$150 in rebates. You can find a lot of deals around if you're patient.
 
You'll probably never use it. I have a few friends that have them. None of them have touched them in years. I do know someone with a kid that uses his a bunch and tapes everything the kid does. I asked him once, "How often do you watch the video of your kid?" His reply was, "We've watched one or two of them in the last year or two."

I'd say save your money or buy something else that you'll actually use.

But, if you really are going to use it, then a 3 CCD camera is good and prices are fairly reasonable today.
 
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