Which Camcorder ??

[ppentertainments]

Not sure if in correct section, so many to choose from now :) , so apologies if wrong.

Wanting advice on a new camcorder. I had one about 10 years ago and am completely lost with these new HD, digital etc etc one out now.

I am primarily wanting one to take to gigs, but also suitable for general use. TBH I don't want to spend too much as video is of no interest to me.

Other must haves need to include; simple to operate, simple to transfer / edit film, small, HD and a decent battery life.

Any suggestions ??

[James]

You might be better off visiting these guys... http://www.videoforums.co.uk/index.php for advice

[Vectis]

My only suggestion would be: to retain absolute flexibility in terms of picture quality and post-processing options, do not buy a camera which compresses on the fly. Usually, cameras which record to SD cards or internal HDDs will compress the data stream to achieve their stated capacity.

Once you've got a compressed datastream, usually H.264 or AVCHD, you'll never be able to put back the missing information. Think of it as having a 128k mp3 that you'd now like to re-encode to 320k because it sounds a bit 'thin'. You can't do it.

Therefore the only solution I'd recommend is tape. Then you have all of the data available to you. If you want to compress it, do it post recording and then you have total control over how it looks.

This is especially important if you want to use it in a darkened environment as blacks don't compress very well and tend to come out with lots of digital artefacts which spoil the picture.

I use Canon HV20s and am extremely pleased with them. I'd always been a Sony man up to this point but when I switched to HD I also switched to Canon and will never look back. These use mini DV tapes which run for 60 minutes each and cost about £1-2 bought in bulk.

HTH.

[ppentertainments]

Cheers Martin, I was kind of banking on you coming along :D :D :beer1:

[ppentertainments]

Bump !!

Have a budget of £400 (can be uncreased if vital).

Mainly to be used for disco clips.

Any suggestions what to go for - if a cheaper camera will do the trick that's fine, i'm no gear snob.

[hammy]

I have a camileo s10 HD
it takes an SD card and is very much below your £400 budget,i got it from tesco for £89 and it comes with me on holiday and is fantastic and also fits in the pocket

http://stuff.tv/review/Toshiba-Camileo-S10-review/

[ppentertainments]

I have a camileo s10 HD
it takes an SD card and is very much below your £400 budget,i got it from tesco for £89 and it comes with me on holiday and is fantastic and also fits in the pocket

http://stuff.tv/review/Toshiba-Camileo-S10-review/

Thats what confuses me - is there any difference between a £89 camera and a £400 one (for my purposes)

[hammy]

in some opinions "yes" in mine no...as you are just doing short clips and in HD mode it is so crisp and clear aand also has a mic built in,as said above i also use it for my main camcorder on holiday

[DazzyD]

Hi Chris

For filming the clips you are talking about would the Flip Ultra HD not be adequate? It always get top reviews in the my Computer Shopper magazines and seems to be a good buy capable of taking HD footage.

Here's a link:

http://www.theflip.com/en-gb/Products/ultra.aspx

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Chris

Have a look at the video clips on my website. The 'dancing' ones were taken with a £100 HD camera and the lightshow ones with a more expensive Sony camera.

All have been compressed, so don't show the true quality, but are still reasonable for use on a web site.

[Totally Plucked]

I use a Sanyo Xacti VPC-CG10 HD 1080 digital camcorder. approx £129 from Asda. But now only £99 at Play.com

Linky
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/sanyo-xacti-vpc-cg10-hd-camcorder-d/600782

Independent review here

http://thenoc.tv/noc/video.cfm?docid=382

Cracking little camera, excellent in low light conditions :)

[Vectis]

Beware that most if not all of the SD / Flash / HDD based cameras will compress your data in real time (AVCHD format and similar). Therefore there's very little that can be done post-production if you're not happy with how it's been captured.

For that reason I strongly recommend DV (tape) based cameras and in particular the Canon HD range as these are wonderful in low-light situations and catch everything uncompressed.

Also my Canon D550 DSLR has very good HD video capture at 30fps and is excellent in low light due to the massive lens I presume. Back to the on-the-fly compression though.... :( However it does mean only needing one camera.


Edit: Just noticed my earlier post saying pretty much the same thing :) Was a few sleeps ago though.... however my experiences with the D550 are quite recent.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I use a Sanyo Xacti VPC-CG10 HD 1080 digital camcorder. approx £129 from Asda. But now only £99 at Play.com

Linky
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/sanyo-xacti-vpc-cg10-hd-camcorder-d/600782

Independent review here

http://thenoc.tv/noc/video.cfm?docid=382

Cracking little camera, excellent in low light conditions :)

That's what mine is.