Recommend a digital camcorder for $400 or less.

[ibex333]

I'm in the market for a new camcorder since my old one died.

Being torn apart between a DVD-R and an HDD devices, I cant make a decision.

It seems that HDD camcorders are not a very good choice since that's relatively new technology and they don't go higher than 30gb in this price range. Maybe a DVD-R route is a better choice?

It's quite confusing, since DVDs might be replaced by new media withing the next 3 years or so, and the future of HDD cameras is not certain either. Does anyone have personal experience in this field?

My needs are basic family video capturing, traveling, trips etc. And. off course I need to be able to xfer videos to a PC.

 

[ibex333]

bump

 

[swtethan]

HDD recorders are great, we have a 30GB jvc and love it. Somewhere online there is a person taking apart a Sony HDD camcorder and its a 1.8" HDD which can probably be upgraded and be had for $250 ish I think (100GB?) im too lazy to find out.

 

[craftech]

Read through this recent thread:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=31&threadid=2030961&enterthread=y

John

 

[Fallen Kell]

Personally I would get a Panasonic PV-GS300 which uses MiniDV's. The DVD burner cameras can not burn video fast enough and as a result record a lower quality then their sensor's and other electronics are otherwise capable of doing. To me, hard drive recorders are not very useful on a trip because once the drive fills up, well that is it.... you would need to take a computer with you with lots of hard drive space to be able to offload the recorded video. Until the hard drives are 1TB in size in a standard def camcorder, I wouldn't get one if I were you (or unless it is swappable just like a battery).

So to me, that leaves some form of tape, and MiniDV is that medium. The GS300 is a little more then you were looking to spend at most places. However, some places online have it under $400 (zoommania for $349 for instance, they are not gray market, but they do have some issues with hard sells for their packages (the "well we have it in stock but only in our bundle...") that said, it has a high google/froogle rating).


Go to http://www.camcorderinfo.com/ as they are probably one of the best review sites out there for this.

 

[ibex333]

bump

More opinions and comments please