Please help me buying a Camcorder

[sbasak]

I'm thinking of buying a camcorder, but felt totally confused after seeing so many models and a wide range of price tags! Over a month I'm unable to find out which model should be best buy!

I can't understand why analog models are so cheaper comapred to digital models.
Which model should I buy - analog or digital?
What are Hi8mm, VHS, MiniDV etc.? What is best? Why?

How do I distribute my movies to my friends? Do I always have to carry the camcorder to their homes and attach it to TVs? Or I can give them the output in VCDs? What if I don't want to give them in VHS cassettes?

How many hours of video I can store in a disk (Hi8mm,MiniDV etc.)?

Some camcorders boast of supporting MPEG movie mode? How am I going to get any benefit for that?


Can you please help me?

Lots of thanks!

[jpm3120]

The first question should be: What are you going to use it for?

Do you want to post your videos to the internet, or save them on you computer? Or is it just for home use?

Digital is better qualtiy than analog.
Hi-8 is better than VHS, but both are analog.

[Sastraxi]

MiniDV - it will say on the digital tape. Most are 60. They should be in 720x480 format (NTSC), or 720x576 (PAL). If you want to make nice movies, think about getting one with widescreen capabilities. You'll ideally need a Firewire port (remember your other thread?)

[Gaffer]

Originally posted by sbasak
I'm thinking of buying a camcorder, but felt totally confused after seeing so many models and a wide range of price tags! Over a month I'm unable to find out which model should be best buy!

I can't understand why analog models are so cheaper comapred to digital models.
Which model should I buy - analog or digital?
What are Hi8mm, VHS, MiniDV etc.? What is best? Why?

How do I distribute my movies to my friends? Do I always have to carry the camcorder to their homes and attach it to TVs? Or I can give them the output in VCDs? What if I don't want to give them in VHS cassettes?

How many hours of video I can store in a disk (Hi8mm,MiniDV etc.)?

Some camcorders boast of supporting MPEG movie mode? How am I going to get any benefit for that?


Can you please help me?

Lots of thanks!

As mentioned above, for final picture and sound quality, you need to look at Digital.

I think you can get about an hour on each digital tape, but you need to double check that.

For distribution, movies can take several formats. Of course you can connect the camera to the TV.

But the sexiest way is with a PC video capture software (see Pinnacle) and a firewire card - you capture your movie on PC as an AVI. Actaully a very large AVI file, so HDD space is important too e.g. about 10-20 mins of video can take up 1Gb (estimate).

Once your AVI is captured, you can use the video editting software for nice transition effects, add mp3 soundtracks, add text, add your own voiceovers. Teh output can be form Real Player to Windows Media Streaming to MPEG to AVI. Then you can distribute to your friends on CD or streaming on teh internet.

One thing that is also useful is to check of your camera has DV in/out. Most have "out" i.e. camera to Firewire card. "DV in" allows you to record you finished work of art back to Digital tape.

My camera (JVC Megapixel) has MPEG and stills formats, but I never use them. I don't see teh benfit when I have the ability to control the quality and size of my movie using Video Capture software. And the stills are just awful compared to a decnet 2 Megapixel digital stills camera.

If you got the cash, I'd go Sony all the way....

[sbasak]

What is the use of NTSC playback, Removable memory, colour viewfinder, program AE modes, easy edit?

Any help?
Thanks.

[Gaffer]

Originally posted by sbasak
What is the use of NTSC playback, Removable memory, colour viewfinder, program AE modes, easy edit?

Any help?
Thanks.

NTSC is the US standard, PAL is European - depends where you live ie you'll need NTSC to play your movie in the US. Looking at the way you spell "colour", I guess you're British, so PAL is all you need :)

Removable memory - I'm guessing you mean like Compact Flash and Sony's Memory Stick. Well, if your camcorder has MPEG capability and digital still cpabaility, you store them on this removable memory. As I said above, I never use this to be honest - teh quality tends to be poor, and you can get these functionalities on most decent cameras over $350. I would not base my purchase on these features.

Colour viewfinder comes with alomst all camera I think. They're usually LCD and pertty damn useful.

Pragram AE (aftereffect) - Thinks like Sepia, Old Movie, Strobe effects. I never use them, except fro maybe Black & white effect. You can add most of these effects in a basci video editting package. I would never base my purchase on AE capabilities..

Easy Edit? Dunno, sorry :)


IMO, figure out how much cash you have to spend, inlucde a firewire card and video editting software in your estimate. If you can afford it, most JVC, Sony, Canon MiniDVs are worth the price. All the extra crap like AE, MPEG, Stills aren't really buying criteria.

Oh, and like any stills camera, the smaller you can go without losign quality the better - you're more likely to carry it every day :)

[sbasak]

So, I select the following as my final configuration

format - Mini DV
DV Out (for transfering movies to Computer)
Widescreen 16:9 mode
Night shooting (0 lux)
Optical zoom - 20x (at least 10x)
Digital zoom - 500x (at least 200x)
LCD screen (2.5-3 inch)
Self Timer/Remote
Image Stabilizer
Title/date time stamp/easy edit (optional)

My price range around £500 (£550 max).

What else do you think I should check for?

If the camcorder supports only PAL and not NTSC, what does it acually mean?

If I connect my camcorder to a TV in USA, won't I be able to view the output?