camcorder - mini dv, dvd, or hd recording?Best bet for ur $?

livalittle

Sun, Aug 24 2008, 12:18 pm

We are looking to buy a camcorder - we're expecting our firsts and want something that will give us good quality video. I want something that is cost efficient and easy to transfer onto computer\dvd and archive away. Which recording method offers A- best quality? B- Cheapest recording media (I thought hdd would be, but bec. you have to store it on a comp., you'd end up having to buy hard disk drives). Any opinions would be appreciated. let me know what worked for you.

I also heard that sony and panasonic arethe best brands, so if any of you have a specific model that you can recommend, would love to hear from you.

thank you!

MrsLeo

Sun, Aug 24 2008, 2:37 pm

For the best quality, mini dv tape is the best way to go. They store the easiest and last the longest. Hard drives take up space and are very unreliable because if you drop the camera or bump it the hard drive can get erased or corrupted. Camcorders that write straight to dvd, in order to watch the dvd on ur computer or dvd player you need to finalize the dvd on the camcorder that it was written on, if something happens to the camera before you get a chance to finalize it, you wont be able to watch that dvd. Also dvds can scratch very easily. They have these camcorders now that write to a sd card and also to mini dv tape, according to dh who is a professional videographer those are the best for regular people. For business he uses only mini dv.

livalittle

Sun, Aug 24 2008, 9:23 pm

Thanks for your advice. We were leaning toward mini dv bec all the reviews had said taht the hdd technology wasnt up to par but the saleswoman said that technology has caught up. The high definition camcorders seem really nice but you have to have a hd screen which we dont have. So I just reread al lthe reviews and they seem to contradict what the woman said, and we'll look into mini dv for now. (Do you know how much they run? Are the tapes really expensive?)

First Lady

Sun, Aug 24 2008, 9:30 pm

We recently purchased a mini DV which we decided on after researching on camcorders. The HD camcorders are much more expensive and we weren't going to spend that amount of money so they were out right away.
We wanted a camcorder with USB streaming so we should be able to watch it on the computer but I'm not sure now that USB streaming stands for that as we haven't yet figured out how to connect it and watch on the computer.
The Sony ones are supposed to be the leading brand in camcorders.
We purchased ours for a great price on ebay-brand new.

MrsLeo

Sun, Aug 24 2008, 9:57 pm

The main problem with HD is that they take up TONS of space and you need a hd dvd player if you are gonna watch it on dvd.
Mini dv tapes are about $2-$3 a tape depending on where you buy them (buying a pack instead of a single tape is a lot cheaper).
In order to transfer/watch your videos on the computer you need a video editing software (windows movie maker). I think some cameras come with softwares.
Sony and Panasonic are the 2 top companies for camcorders (as far as I know)
There are a lot of options to consider when looking into camcorders. I dont know the exact details but
if you want to know about a specific camera you can pm me the model name/number and I can look into it for you.

livalittle

Sun, Aug 24 2008, 10:23 pm

I think mini dv will be the way to go for now. Thanks for your advice. Mrs LEo, I wouldnt trouble you to look something up for me - but I'd love to hear which website you use. I generally read reviews on cnet, but havent been finding them to be so clear.

MrsLeo

Sun, Aug 24 2008, 10:31 pm

livalittle wrote:

Like I mentioned before, my husband is a professional videographer so he knows which options on a camcorder are the ones to look for.

MrsLeo

Mon, Jul 25 2011, 10:09 am

grin wrote:

MrsLeo wrote:

I just inherited an old mini dv camcorder - with what cable do I transfer the movies?
can a cassette from any company fit or does it have to designated for canon?

Any miniDV tape will work.
The cable is usually a FireWire cable because it is faster to transfer big files like videos. Keep in mind that most household computers don't have a FireWire in the computer so you may need to add it to your computer.