Bruce Posted April 25, 2006 Share Posted April 25, 2006 I am an idiot when it comes to tech stuff. I need to buy one of these in order to film my kid's ballgames and school events, so that the DVD can then be played in either portable or home DVD machine. What have you used and what do you recommend? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpolans Posted April 25, 2006 Share Posted April 25, 2006 Given the limitations of recording directly on to DVDs, assuming you have a computer, why not get a camera that records onto mini-DV tapes, get some editing software, and get a DVD burner? It'll open up your choice of cameras and as well as make it easier to edit your home movies. I am an idiot when it comes to tech stuff. I need to buy one of these in order to film my kid's ballgames and school events, so that the DVD can then be played in either portable or home DVD machine.What have you used and what do you recommend? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted April 25, 2006 Share Posted April 25, 2006 The DVD camcorders DO NOT record to full size DVD discs and instead use the 3.5" mini-DVD discs which are limited to a half hour record time and are not compatable with all consumer DVD players. Check your player for 3.5" mini-disc capability first. Mpolans is correct about a MiniDV tape camcorder being a better choice. The software and a burner are bundled on most new machines nowadays. This allows the use of standard 4.7GB 5" discs which hold up to 3 hours of footage and play in pretty much anything. BTW, the MiniDV camcorders are really cheap if you shop around, especially compared to the DVD disc versions. I don't recommend the DVD camcorders to anyone. Video is what I do for a living ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimel Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 Care to make any personal favorite recommendations George? Been thinking of getting a miniDV for awhile now for match footage, video critiquing my performance (or lack thereof), the drug dealers across the street, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Posted April 26, 2006 Author Share Posted April 26, 2006 Care to make any personal favorite recommendations George? Been thinking of getting a miniDV for awhile now for match footage, video critiquing my performance (or lack thereof), the drug dealers across the street, etc. +1 George, I am all ears. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loves2Shoot Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 JVC MiniDV Digital Camcorder with 2.5" Color LCD Monitor GR-D395US I got this 2 weeks ago and have been very happy with it. It has a remote which is very cool. A big battery and a easy interface. I'm no expert, but so far so good. It has lots of cool features at a fairly cheap price point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooter Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 Safest bet is to stick with Sony. Sony pretty much has dominated the entire camcorder industry. The $200-300 you save for the same camera that isn't DVD can easily buy a good DVD burner for your computer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpolans Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 Personally, I'm looking for one of the 3ccd ones...can't wait till the prices start dropping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rishii Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 +1 on the minidv cam also if your tec. challanged like me, get a dvd recorder with a firewire connection. that way you can hook the camera to the recorder, hit record and let the machine do the work. with the money you'll save with the minidv, you'll have money left over for the recorder, plus it's cool not having to mess with vhs tapes to record the races on sunday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 Sony, Canon. They both have been making the MiniDV pro-sumer and consumer camcorders for a few years now and have it down pat. Consumer level machines can be had for a bit under a grand and pro-sumer level stuff capable of doing OK production work can be had for under 2k. http://www.advizia.com/v41/Advisor.asp?Use...rders-SS&Rnd=24 http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controlle...fcategoryid=102 Had my druthers and wanted a DV camcorder on the cheap, I would look for a used Canon GL-2 (3ccd pro-sumer model) on Ebay, or Amazon auctions. good price would be down near 1k, great price would be at, or just under 1k if it was not beat to shjt. No matter what you choose, remember to make sure it features a digital interface. Sony calls it iLink, most everyone else calls it FireWire or IEEE 1394. Without this connection option it will be very difficult to get the footage into your PC for editing and DVD disc production. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ong45 Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 No matter what you choose, remember to make sure it features a digital interface. Sony calls it iLink, most everyone else calls it FireWire or IEEE 1394. Without this connection option it will be very difficult to get the footage into your PC for editing and DVD disc production. How does this compare to usb 2 ? I am also window shopping for a new camcorder. I don't need anything nice and am not looking to take high quality footage ( maybe shooting and snowboarding ) . I do need something very compact though. What do you think of the camcorders that record on flash cards? James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 How does this compare to usb 2 ? http://www.cwol.com/firewire/firewire-vs-usb.htm What do you think of the camcorders that record on flash cards? Not much! Low on picture quality and short on record duration unless you like buying a half dozen 2GB Flash Cards ;-/ On the other hand the lack of moving parts in a tape path may be a boon in sub-zero and rough handling conditions :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shred Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 I have a camera with both USB and 1394 on it. Although the page George cites is correct, it doesn't really matter for video transferring, except... Sony won't output the full DV stream on the USB 2.0 port for reasons of their own. If all you have is USB 2, either make sure the camera will put DV on it or get a 1394 card. 1394 add-on cards can be found under $100.. The small camcorders are the single-chip versions and generally have slightly worse optical paths due to the size requirements. Go by the store and compare and see if you can live with the difference in CCDs and lenses. Most people can, especially for web video or home DVDs. For filming shooting matches, get a lot of real zoom (not digital zoom), and an add-on wide-angle lens is handy as well. The ultra-small camcorders sometimes use MicroDV, which is a pain. Micro hard-drive cameras are around as well. It'll be a few more years before the flash videocams get up to par, but it'll happen eventually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritinUSA Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 Panasonic has some 3 CCD digital cameras They have them at Amazon.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigbadaboom Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 I'm pretty sure this camcorder uses standard 5" disks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 I'm pretty sure this camcorder uses standard 5" disks. Nope, 8mm (3.15") discs only like all the rest. Sony plays up the mini DVD disc compatability in consumer players, but they lie. "Most" players is nowhere near 100% of players ;-/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
driver8M3 Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 i have a sony dcr-dvd101, which records directly to the 3.5" discs. i'm not going to argue that it's better than what others on here recommend (b/c i know little to nothing about video recording), but this is a darn nice machine. it cost around $700. while the discs only hold about 30 minutes of stuff (more if you decrease the quality of the recording), that's plenty for just any application that i use it for (some shooting vids, vids of my daughter's events, etc.). it's very convenient to take the disc from the recorder and pop it into a dvd player to watch. our old sharp camcorder used tapes that were constantly getting tangled in the machine, and it was a pita to watch the tapes on tv. my wife wanted something that would be easy to use, and easy to watch later. neither of us know much about video editing, computers, etc., and this one is great for us. it's true that the discs did not work in our dvd player (which was an early version), but a new dvd player costs about $45 at walmart, so it wasn't a big deal to get a new one (we needed a second one anyway). just my 2 cents... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genghis Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 I am very happy with my Canon ZR 90. It records to Mini DV, has a Firewire port, and can also record to SD cards (including video and still shots). The video recorded to an SD card is not as high quality, but it's nice to be able to record without a tape or disk. I have a DVD burner and Firewire port on my computer, and a DVR at home. I can record from the camera directly to a DVD in the DVR. I can also transfer the video using Firewire to the computer, and choose the video quality. Lately I have been capturing frames to .JPG files. I was surprised at the relatively low quality. The video is supposed to be 720 by 480, but the frameshots are not nearly that good. Some have inaccuracies that seem to be artifacts of the moving video. Still, it's cool to be able to go frame-by-frame and select the one that makes you look like a hero! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JakeMartens Posted April 27, 2006 Share Posted April 27, 2006 I had a Panasonic DVD camcorder and sold it to get a miniDV. Reason is when recording onto the DVD you cannot play it on anyting until you finalize it. We would end up watching the recording on the 2inch lcd screen until the disc was finalized. I bought the the Cannon ZR500 miniDV, works great. Hook it up to a dvd burner I got from Target for $88. I was going to get the JVC hard drive camcorder, they have dropped in price and can be found for the 20g version for $499. The biggest problem with those is battery life, they last about 1/2hour and the extended life batteries are still pretty expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chills1994 Posted April 28, 2006 Share Posted April 28, 2006 I'll throw in my 2 cents here. I have a Sony mini-DVD cam corder. The camera can be set up with three different resolution levels and corresponding total recording times of 20, 30 or 60 minutes. I use -RW discs only. Yes, you can finalize the disc and plop it into pretty much any DVD player just fine. Or with the S-video/RCA jack cord supplied with the camera you can hook it up to your TV. You can also record to the miniDVD using the same cord. It also came with video editing software. So I save lots of footage to my computer's HD. Then reuse the -RW discs. I really like the camera and others, not just myself are impressed with the quality of the moving pics. The stills could be better of course, it is only 1.0 + megapixel. A good compromise of moving and still pics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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