wife wants a camcoder but I know nothing about them

[country2]

Need help picking one out as I'm clueless about them. It will be used for home movies and will do some video editing/storing on computers running W7. I have been looking around and reading reviews and have found a JVC GZ-HD620 that I can buy for under $370.

Know since I'm really clueless what do the peeps in the know recommend? I do have a limit though of $400. Thanks

 

[Kaido]

Depends on your budget and what you want to do with it. Also, you need to look at lifecycle - what's going to be the end result of your movies? Are you going to store the footage on your boot drive, and do you want to burn movies to DVD or stream them to your Xbox? The problem most people run into is they shoot a lot of random stuff, then never look at it again. Or shoot a 2-hour movie of their kid's recital or choir or sports game, but never edit it down to 5 minutes and put it on Youtube.

If you just want a cheap, basic camcorder, then the Kodak Playsport Zx3 is nice. It doesn't have a zoom, but it's waterproof and simple to operate. It goes for $114 on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Kodak-PlaySpor...dp/B0030MITDK/

For your budget, if you're looking for something more in the traditional camcorder range, but also want to do still photos, check out the Canon SX30IS:

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-SX30IS-D...dp/B0041RSPR8/

The SX30IS has a megazoom and does 14 megapixel stills plus 720p HD video. It's actually on sale for $314 today: (normal price is around $400)

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2122269

The JVC you're looking at is nice because it has a built-in hard drive, so you don't have to constantly dump your memory cards on your computer. It's a bit more risky though, because if the hard drive fails, you can lose a lot of recorded footage if you haven't transferred it over to your computer. I've never actually met anyone whose camcorder hard drive has failed though, so it's fairly safe.

Windows 7 comes with Movie Maker 2011, which is available free:

http://explore.live.com/windows-live-movie-maker?os=other

Extensoft also has a basic editor called "Free Video Converter" available for download here:

http://www.extensoft.com/?p=downloads

DVD Flick is a free app to burn movies to DVD :

http://www.dvdflick.net/

Hope that gets you pointed in the right direction

 

[country2]

Thanks for the info as stated budget of $400 will be used for home movies. Will most likely do video editting and I do have a media streaming plus w7 ultimate on all my computers networked together so chance of streaming and may be converted over to most likely a different format for streaming (mkv, divx and xvids are possible formats)

Are the digi camera with movie recording actually that good and have good record time or is it best to have a dedicated camcorder? I read some reviews on the Playsport Zx3 but would like to have a zoom. We have a old Canon G5 camera but its dated and is starting to have focusing issues (seems to take longer now and not as crisp) guess I could look farther into the camera/movie recorder...

oh as far as a hd failure I'm picky on back ups and have external drives I can store on so if one does goes out most likely wont loose much.

Been looking at the SX30IS you mentioned and still reading comments and seems to do great even as a move recorder looks like it may be what I'll go with.

 

[country2]

well due to the discount I went and got the Canon SX30IS since our G5 is on the blink anyways.Thanks

 

[Kaido]

well due to the discount I went and got the Canon SX30IS since our G5 is on the blink anyways.Thanks

Excellent - you'll love it. The zoom is ridiculous, the picture quality is super clear, and it's really easy to use. Report back when you get it!

 

[country2]

Excellent - you'll love it. The zoom is ridiculous, the picture quality is super clear, and it's really easy to use. Report back when you get it!

Sure will

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I would go tapeless and skip the HDD cams if you can.

I really enjoy my Canon HF S100's (x2)