Purchase Dilemma: New Digicam Or Camcorder?

[dfwmiket]

I want to start having video clips from matches, the cats playing, etc. Nothing extravagant, at all. I have an older digital camera, but it's in need of replacement. ( It's only 1.2 megapixels!!!) I've also looked at some of the lesser expensive camcorders, in MiniDV and Super8. I'd like to hear pros and cons of both, considering my use. I would probably still take some stills, but I'd say 70% of use would be video clips and the like. I'm also watching my budget......anything more than half the cost of a new Glock is out. thoughts? opinions?

Mike

[Carl Provan]

I have a Sony MiniDV Digital Camcorder. I also have Adobe Premier Elements. The Adobe program alows me to download video from my camera to my PC and edit it. Then I make DVD's and give them to my friends. I have even posted one of the clips here on BE.

http://www.shooter-grrl.com/be_pics/CQStandards.wmv

This is a link to the video I posted last year with the help of Shooter Grrl.

I like the miniDV format because I can remove a tape and not have any porblems like miniDVD do. MiniDVD's require you to close the disc after it is full and that can take some time. The MiniDV's dont require closing and the tape can be reused.

[Shooter Grrl]

My Sony digital camera is 5mp and will do videos as well.... hmmm, http://www.shooter-grrl.com all the pics and videos are from it

[dfwmiket]

My Sony digital camera is 5mp and will do videos as well.... hmmm, http://www.shooter-grrl.com all the pics and videos are from it

How much space does the average video take up? I saw a couple of yours were about 9 meg....is that 20-30 secs or so? I'm guessing that a 1 gig memory card/stick would do fine for this purpose.

The camera "WOULD" give me both new,better quality still pics and video options......

of course, the camcorder would be slick,too........ decisions,decisions.

[Merlin Orr]

I have an older Sony DV8 camcorder and find it very sufficent for most everthing I need. A cheap DV will do really good stuff - as long as you have good light. Trying to use one for stills is a waste of time...IMHO. I also have a Canon S2 that does video - great pics but crap for the video feature. Hard to get something that will Really do both with any ease of use and quality. Again - IMHO.

[dajarrel]

I have a Sony Dig camera and have found it very easy to get the picture/movies to the computer and from there to a CD.

I video our clubs shooters at the matches we travel to and make CD's for everyone.

One of our shooters has not been able to get his camcorder hookup to work right yet.

I'm happy with my digital camera.

FWIW

dj

[Chills1994]

I have a Sony DVD handycam. I like it. It is about a year and half old now, and WOW! have prices really dropped on them. I'm also assuming that the newer higher end versions (read more expensive) have better features.

For stills, it is not the best. I think it is 1.0 + Megapixels. The lighting has to be just right or the pics look really grainey.

For moving pictures it does really well. I only use the 80mm DVD RW discs, I can record and record over them. At a high quality record level the disc is only good for 20 minutes, at standard, 32 minutes, and long play 63 minutes.

Yes, it's true that you have to finalize the DVD before playing it in most DVD players/computer DVD drives. But once you're done viewing it on your DVD player, you can put it back in the Handycam, unfinalize it and keep on recording. Still pictures will playback like a slide show through your DVD player on the TV.

The software that came with it allows me to save stills and movies to my computers hard drive via a USB cable. I haven't tried to do much editing with it. I usually run scenes from an IDPA match or range practice session together as one longer movie using the storyboard function of the software.

After I bought it, I heard about a way to store the Hi8 tapes to your computer on Tech TV. Darn! Wish I knew about that before could have saved me about $600 if I had bought a Hi8 camcorder.

Another thing I am currently working on is "downloading" shows from the TiVo to the handycam. Then I'm gloing to save that to my computer. We were too cheap to spring for the $600 Toshiba combo DVD burner/TiVo box.

Anyhoo....I think Samsung is making a very small digital movie camera that you could probably secure to your ear muffs and cobble together your own Hosercam.

Chills

[mcoliver]

My JVC miniDV recently died and if only salesmen screw-up half as often I'd probably be enjoying my Sanyo Xacti C6 now.

Anyway, the C6 comes with 6MP in stills & records in mpeg-4 in a SD card. I've seen the still shots of its older brother, the C5, and it was impressive considering it was taken from a "video" cam.

I've taken the video samples from the net, did a conversion to avi and made some editing. The output quality was better than I expected. In fact, I can only see the artifacts in my computer but not in my TV (unless maybe you have a big-ass HDTV?).

And the biggest plus is the size package. Because it's amazingly even smaller than your modern palm pilot.

[calhunter]

Check out this site.

cnet.com

They have reviews of cameras according to price range.

I bought a Panasonic GS250 after reading thier reviews and have been real happy with it (when I can pry it away from my kid.) It's a mini DV with a SD chip for stills. It will allow you to take stills while recording or from a recorded video.

[shred]

Buncha new stuff to be announced this week and next at CES. Not that you can actually buy any of it, but it should cause a price drop on the older stuff (where 'older' means six months)

[Loves2Shoot]

My Sony digital camera is 5mp and will do videos as well.... hmmm, http://www.shooter-grrl.com all the pics and videos are from it

Ditto for my stuff. Get a 1 Gig memory chip and you are set.