Do you own a portable digital camcorder?

[frank84]

I am looking for a portable digital camcorder that has nice framespeed (30fps minimum) and cheap.

I understand that some of the portable digital cameras have nice filming function.

If you have any recommendation, please reply this thread.

Thanx

 

[frank84]

anyone?

 

[frank84]

noone?

 

[Cristatus]

miniDV roxored. After that, I don't know what's good. We've been on the look out for a newer camera as well, but all the tech is just too much: hard disk, DVD, memory card, etc.

Also, things such as recording over old footage is hard because, for DVD, you can't rewind and record over it, for mem. cards just don't have enough space, and hard disks seems to be the best bet, but what happens after the drive is full, or crashes? If the drive is full, I'm not going to go through the process of downloading GBs of data just to put them onto DVD, especially because I probably don't have enough space.

miniDV ftw!

 

[radioouman]

MiniDV is excellent. I have a Canon ZR600. It's great.

 

[Gooberlx2]

I agree, miniDV is still where it's at.

 

[fallenangel99]

I am also looking for a camcorder. Why do people prefer minidv over harddrive based camcorders, other than price? Wouldn't it be just convenient to hook the camcorder to your PC, edit, and then burn the movie?

 

[Gooberlx2]

Originally posted by: fallenangel99
I am also looking for a camcorder. Why do people prefer minidv over harddrive based camcorders, other than price? Wouldn't it be just convenient to hook the camcorder to your PC, edit, and then burn the movie?

Flexibility I think. DV-AVI format creates enormous files as they're 25Mbps. Once you're out of space on a hardrive, that's it until you offload all that video. Certainly there must be compression options, but likely at the expense of video quality. MiniDV, obviously, allows you to just pop in another tape. Very convenient especially if you're on a long trip without access to a computer.

Also, you won't be able to archive that video, like you can with a tape (store it on a shelf), unless you want to keep all the raw footage on your hardrive. Then you'd want to backup all that data which just means you'll have to buy more HDDs over time. Tapes are cheap, more durable and more portable. You can just pop in a recorded tape to the camera and hook it up to a TV to watch if you'd like. You can't just do that with HDD since you'll be using up your recordable space. And then there's the reliability issue where the HDD based cameras aren't quite proven yet.

 

[fallenangel99]

Ah, great explanation Goober. I have a few more days of research and then I'll buy one before my London trip. It looks like its between the Elura 100 and Canon ZR850.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Originally posted by: fallenangel99
Ah, great explanation Goober. I have a few more days of research and then I'll buy one before my London trip. It looks like its between the Elura 100 and Canon ZR850.

I have the Elura100, I'm very happy with it, and it was recently rated "Camcorder of the Year" at camcorderinfo.com. The panasonic GS300 gets great reviews as well and has the much coveted 3ccd technology, but it's more expensive.

Check out this link

 

[Staples]

Can MiniDV tapes record in 16x9, 480p at 60fps? I figure it is up to the camera you use.

 

[Chryso]

I just recently got this one
Text
It uses an SD card. I really like it. It is small enough to fit in your pocket when you aren't using it.

(BTW, you can get it at radio shack for 199 instead of 399.)

 

[Quasmo]

Originally posted by: Gooberlx2

Originally posted by: fallenangel99
Ah, great explanation Goober. I have a few more days of research and then I'll buy one before my London trip. It looks like its between the Elura 100 and Canon ZR850.

I have the Elura100, I'm very happy with it, and it was recently rated "Camcorder of the Year" at camcorderinfo.com. The panasonic GS300 gets great reviews as well and has the much coveted 3ccd technology, but it's more expensive.

Check out this link

Another vote for the Panny. I'm a film major, and that's what I suggest.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Originally posted by: Staples
Can MiniDV tapes record in 16x9, 480p at 60fps? I figure it is up to the camera you use.

I'm sure it does depend on the camera, mine (the Canon Elura 100) does true 16x9 (the panny, I believe, is anamorphic). I think it's 480i @ 30fps, but I'm not sure. The video is definitely interlaced when I import it.

 

[dquan97]

I've used the JVC hard drive camcorders and the output file is a pain to edit because when it's imported into Vegas or Premiere, only the video is recognized; the audio is left out. The audio would then need to be imported separately and syncing can be a problem.

 

[swtethan]

my brother has a 30GB JVC camcorder, its pretty nice.

 

[frank84]

well, i wasnt looking for a full size camcorder.

i am looking for a very small size
i do not need minidv quality

something that can run with a flash drive