Camcorder suggestions?

[JMortensen]

I'm looking into getting a camcorder, and I've already done some research. Basically what I've found is that all of the commonly available types have their pros and cons. This is what I've determined so far (please correct me if I'm wrong):

 

1. DV camcorders: record on tapes. The tape media allows for the most thorough editing (I won't be editing frame by frame anyway). Lowest price. Can record widescreen, but not in HD.

 

2. DVD camcorders: records straight to DVD. Somehow in this process you get some data loss when it changes the format to DVD (mpeg4 from avi???), so picture quality is not as good as DV. After the format is changed, you can't edit as thoroughly as DV. Middle priced. Can record widescreen but not HD.

 

3. HDD camcorders: records to hard drive. Similar data loss to DVD camcorders. Can record hours and hours of video. Can record widescreen but not HD.

 

4. HD HDD camcorders: records to hard drive. I've got a little confusion here, but I think this one is also not as editable as the DV, but has HD, so one would assume little or no data loss. Pricey.

 

5. HD DV camcorders: records to DV tape. I think you're pretty limited in the amount of time you can record to a DV tape in HD. Possibly better editing and picture than the HDD version. Pricey.

 

So basically I have an HD TV and LOVE HD vs normal definition at least in normal programming (DVD's seem fine to me), also LOVE widescreen vs 4:3, and I want to buy a camcorder that won't be completely out of date in a couple years. Use will mostly be for home movie types of things, but I definitely want to use it in my car, which will be a rough ride for the camera to say the least, and I'm not sure HD would do any good here due to the vibrations that will no doubt be prevalent. I'm a bit worried about how the hard drive cameras will deal with vibration and g forces, and that makes me think maybe the DV version would be a better choice.

 

I've also read stuff about converting the DV or HD output to DVD, and it appears that this requires a HUGE hard drive, so I'm thinking that it might be nicer at least from a user's standpoint to stick with the DVD version rather than have to buy an external drive and a DVD burner. Current DVD's seem fine to me for some reason even though the standard def TV doesn't seem anywhere near as good as HD. Do they even have HD DVD burners out yet? I suppose at some point they will also have a HD DVD camcorder, which might be the ultimate solution... I wonder if this will hit the market anytime soon, probably the week after I buy something.

 

So suggestions for cameras, equipment and all that would be appreciated. I did find a fairly useful thread from around January, but it didn't touch on the HD aspect at all.

[JMortensen]

Oh, I'd also like to do a lipstick camera remotely mounted in the car. Suggestions for where to get the camera and what type of plug in is necessary also appreciated.

[big-phil]

I have a lipstick cam. it hooks up with the RCA jacks and an external power source like "AA" batteries. I have not used it in any of my car videos. But I used it all the time in my stunt videos on the bike.

 

Try looking at a Spy shop? I got mine from a friend, as for camera I just have 2 Sony DV cams that goto tape. Then I use Adobe Premiere 6.0 to edit.

[Pop N Wood]

Just get a digital camera with a 2 or 4 gig memory card. I highly recommend this one

 

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8266574&type=product&id=1170290214776

 

The Sony I got my wife for Christmas holds something like 2 hours of video on the 2 gig memory card. We don't even use our Canon DV camcorder anymore.

 

You can then pick up a USB hard drive to store all the video. $100 will get you 500 gig of storage space. It is a hell of a lot faster pulling data off a memory card than a tape. Tapes read back in real time. Plus the tapes are still something like $5 each.

 

I would not recommend getting one that records to DVD. Those things break and don't seem to hold much. Plus the price of the media.

[JMortensen]

You can then pick up a USB hard drive to store all the video. $100 will get you 500 gig of storage space. It is a hell of a lot faster pulling data off a memory card than a tape. Tapes read back in real time. Plus the tapes are still something like $5 each.

 

I would not recommend getting one that records to DVD. Those things break and don't seem to hold much. Plus the price of the media.

Yeah, the tape transfer time does seem to be slow and that seems to be another point in favor of the HD setups. I seem to be finding that the DVD ones only record about 20 minutes of video on a disk. I think I've ruled them out entirely at this point.

 

I'm not sure about doing the camcorder function off of a camera though. Several issues come up. If you can record 2 hours of video on 2 gigs of ram, that means that the video isn't very high quality (right?). Also, I'd be reluctant to strap a big camera onto the roll bar of my car. Plus, I have a Nikon camera now that does video and it isn't very good. Has a repetitive clicking noise on the video mode, and the quality is crap. Granted, its not as nice as the camera you linked to...

[Pop N Wood]

After I posted the link I started looking around. A miniDV tape holds something like 11 gig of data. So the Sony in video mode has to be considerably lower quality. It's not bad though. Good enough for school recitals and the like. Sony does make an HD camcorder that only records on memory sticks. But at $100+ for the 8 gig sticks you are not going to be buying those in packs of 5. In a year or two I imagine they will be $40 or so.

 

USB hard drives are pretty cheap. I wouldn't let disk space be a factor in your decision. If it is then you may need to question your desire for HD.

 

I am not up on the HD camcorder state of the art. Maybe someone who knows more will pitch in.

[cygnusx1]

I went through this about a year ago. My goals were to have a small camcorder to tape vacations and our son in as close to HD as we could afford. I went with a Panasonic 3-ccd sensor camcorder with mini-dvd format. In widescreen, it looks real close to HD, but the capacity of each disk is only 19minutes. That's OK for my purpose and I am very happy with the picture quality. However for automotive use...

 

This is what we got but NOT great for automotive use:

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Panasonic-VDR-D300-Camcorder-Review.htm

 

 

 

What I would suggest is to get a small, high-end, digital still camera that has the video capability with widescreen. Then load the camera up with as large a memory card as you can fit. They are ultra reliable, they handle heat and vibration well and usually about the size of a pack of cigg's. Another benefit of the photo cam vs the camcorder is that they are more abundant, and reviews for them are all over the internet. Camcorders are much more difficult to pinpoint.

 

CHECK THIS OUT! 80 minutes on 2gigs at HD Video (720P) at 30fps Widescreen for $200. It's even a Z model camera!

http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com/digital-cameras/kodak-gets-into-hd-video-with-the-z1275_news.html

Sample Video:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SBBCSJQE

 

 

 

I just bought a camera for my RC plane that does decent video and snapshots, no sound, for $20. I can take about 1.5 hours of video in OK quality onto a 1G memory card. It's really crappy build but works very well for $20. It's only 2oz. so you can velcro it anywhere...at that price you can get a couple of them. The quality is about 50% better than a youtube video.

 

You can find it cheaper. Make sure it's an SD version that takes the SD memory cards.

http://www.aiptek.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=R-PCSD13&Store_Code=AS