Gergely
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| posted on 1/2/08 at 08:55 AM |
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Camcorder advice please
Right... I know absolutely nothing about camcorders, never had one...
I do a lot of photography (analogue and digital) but no video.
I am thinking of buying a second hand, cheap camera off ebay, but I would appreciate some advice.
1. What brands are considered reliable?
2. Shoud I go Mini DV or something else? I don't even know what the other options are...
3. What specifications are good to look for?
4. What should I avoid?
Again, I am not looking for a high end camera, just a simple, but reliable, cheap one that I can use to film the kid, and possibly for some in-car
footage at track days... nothing fancy...
Thanks!
Gergely
[Edited on 1/2/08 by Gergely]
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BenB
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| posted on 1/2/08 at 09:05 AM |
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Personally I'd go for a mini DV one. It's easy to capture the footage and they're a bit more robust for car use than the miniDVD or
hard disc camcorders.
Also- if you rip miniDVD footage into an editing program like Premiere you'll often run into problems with audio-video sync. No such problems
when you let it capture the miniDV footage.
Hard disc camcorders have amazing capacities but you might not want to use one in a car- they're not solid state!!!
Other than that I'd recommend a Sony camcorder for good optics and reasonable low light level performance.
The only thing I would add is that as good as camcorders are they're pretty crappy when you compare them to something like a Sony PD170... I
used one of those a few months back and it blew away all the Sony handicam type jobbies...
The only thing you might have to be a bit careful with buying second hand is that there was a problem a while back of different tape manafacturers
using different lubricants on their tapes. These were incompatible with each other resulting in some of the record mechanisms gumming up. Apparantly
though in the last couple of years they've got their acts together... Personally I bought a new camcorder and stick to Sony tapes...
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MikeCapon
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| posted on 1/2/08 at 09:07 AM |
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Hi, Just been through all that research with arrival of twin daughters. Mini DV is most common and most practical format. Alternatives are hard drive
(dear) or DVD (big). I bought Canon MD130 for 230€. V happy except lead for downloading to PC not supplied.
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nitram38
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| posted on 1/2/08 at 09:09 AM |
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Gergely, it all depends what quality your are after.
The latest camcorders use hardrives to record and some have High Definition.
The only problem with trackdays is the hardrive will get a hammering in strapped to your car.
I have bought an Sanyo Xacti CA-65 which uses an SD card so no moving parts.
The picture is adequate for a 42" plasma TV but not the best quality. It also has a nifty image stabilisation system that works!
It cost me £218 on ebay plus another £30 for an 8GB SD card that gives around 4Hrs of recording.
The battery only gives 72 mins recording, but I bought an extra battery for £7.
Hope that helps
Martin
Forgot to add that it is waterproof too and can be submerged in water
PC PRO REVIEW LINK
[Edited on 1/2/2008 by nitram38]
[Edited on 1/2/2008 by nitram38]
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dhutch
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| posted on 1/2/08 at 09:16 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by Gergely
Right... I know absolutely nothing about camcorders, never had one...
I do a lot of photography (analogue and digital) but no video.
I am thinking of buying a second hand, cheap camera off ebay, but I would appreciate some advice.
1. What brands are considered reliable?
2. Shoud I go Mini DV or something else? I don't even know what the other options are...
3. What specifications are good to look for?
4. What should I avoid?
Again, I am not looking for a high end camera, just a simple, but reliable, cheap one that I can use to film the kid, and possibly for some in-car
footage at track days... nothing fancy...
Thanks!
Gergely
[Edited on 1/2/08 by Gergely]
Im not a fan of magnetic tape in this day and age, but MiniDVC seams to be the standard, and proberbly the best in reality.
- I know there are some the burn 80mm cd/dvds but seams a worse idea to me. And there are few HDD based recoreders about.
Our last two cameras where MiniDV based JVC's which both worked fine untill the first one devloped a fault with its cassette handling/reading
garbage and was replaced with our current one. Before that we had a panasonic vhs-c based thing, which was also fine. Tbh, i dont think there much
between them. Sanyo or proberbly as good as any. And the sonys seam to work, although i have a disliking to sony on a more general level..
[Edited on 1/2/08 by dhutch]
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Jubal
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| posted on 1/2/08 at 09:51 AM |
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If you want it for track day use and wish to use a bullet cam then be sure it has AV in. Recently, for whatever reason I cannot fathom in
today's connected world, not many camcorders have AV in.
A mate has a Hard Drive camera that I was going to have a play with but I discovered it doesn't have AV in. I'm attracted to them because
of the ease of capturing the video (drag and drop). But the flipside is that you then need to store the video electronically if you want full
resolution. The files are BIG.
I also have another mate with a DVD camera and he has some problems with it cutting out when in the car. Not really recommended.
MiniDV is very robust and relatively inexpensive so I'd recommend that. The tapes keep for ages, can be used for archiving and are cheap. I have
a Canon miniDV camera which stands up to the abuse inside a kit car well enough.
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DarrenW
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| posted on 1/2/08 at 10:11 AM |
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You are likely to get 10 differing views for every cam corder model. There is probs not much to chose from between the top makes. I bought Canon,
others refer Sony etc etc.
Only recommendation i can make is if budget allows try and get one with AV input to record from bullet cam as Jubal says. Trying to explain what a
bullet cam is in some camera shops might be the biggest challenge though.
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gingerprince
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| posted on 1/2/08 at 10:52 AM |
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If you want cheap but good then you could do a lot worse than this: -
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Canon-Outlet_Canon-Camcord
ers_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ6QQftidZ2QQtZkm
Basically refurbed Canon units - previous generation (still good) but with a years factory warranty.
These ones don't seem to have AV in though (so no good with a bullet camera). I got a Canon from here a couple of years ago with AV in for
about 120 quid delivered.
The main issue with any handheld like this is tape-noise on the video - the only realy way around that is to make sure you get one that has an option
of an external mic, if you're bothered about it...
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Gergely
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| posted on 1/2/08 at 12:26 PM |
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Thanks guys!
It will be mostly for the kids, only secondary is the trackday function, but i will do my best to get one with AV in and MIC in.
Thanks!
Gergely
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robinj66
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| posted on 1/2/08 at 02:13 PM |
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Just to show my complete ignorance of such matters - if you get a camcorder with AV in, does the bulet cam just plug in (with appropriate lead) or do
you need software etc and "setting up"?
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Jubal
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| posted on 1/2/08 at 02:54 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by robinj66
Just to show my complete ignorance of such matters - if you get a camcorder with AV in, does the bulet cam just plug in (with appropriate lead) or do
you need software etc and "setting up"?
It is plug and go. They all have a different way of telling the camera to use the AV source but rtfm and you'll be away.
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nitram38
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| posted on 1/2/08 at 03:06 PM |
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You will also need seperate power to the bullet cam.
I have an archos 604 hardrive recorder plus a plug in archos bullet cam. No power supply required.
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