Camcorder recomendations

[RUSHARP2]

I would like to buy a camcorder for taping practice and matches. I shoot every week at an indoor match (lower light) and a couple outdoor matches a month. I would also like to put it on a tripod for taping practice sessions. I guess I could also use it to tape my nephews as well.

I would like to spend as little as possible, as I am addicted to buying guns at that moment. I was hoping to spend around 300-400, but could be talked into a little more if the camcorder was well worth it.

I have done some research and Flash Memory seems to be the way to go.. So far I have looked at the Cannon line mostly. FS100 and the HF 100.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts/suggestions.

Matt

[outerlimits]

those new canon flash based versions are incredible...but you won't score one for prices. incredibly small & lite.

[bp78]

Aiptek digital recorders are decent. They are HD, sub-$200, and use cheap SDHC memory. They work well to catch and combine clips from matches. It's small and cheap enough to drag along despite the weather. It's not really a real camcorder but I've been happy with my older A-HD.

http://www.aiptek.com/Merchant2/merchant.m...p;Store_Code=AS

[Aristotle]

Panasonic HDD camcorder is the way to go.

Avoid a Mini DVD at all costs. Spent over $1200 on my Sony DVD, a 15 day trip, wedding, honeymoon videos... gone. Never again.

My camcorder holds 30 gigs of video, is easy to download, and is very user friendly.

Check out my videos if you want a sense of video quality, not a 3ccd, but not too bad. Of course youtube has a way of distorting video quality some, the original footage is vivid enough for me when displayed on the computer or TV.

www.youtube.com/aristotle13

[G-ManBart]

I bought a JVC Everio MG-130 last Summer while on vacation and it's great. It's a hard-drive model (30GB) with the ability to take memory cards as well. On the medium setting it will hold something like 18 hours and you can get up to something like 37 hours if you go to a lower resolution. At the highest resolution it's still around 7-8hrs. On the medium resolution, the quality is very good and I have never seen the need for anything better. It's quite small, comes with a tripod, remote control and was around $500 at Sam's Club, but the price has probably come down somewhat since then. One of the other guys in my office liked it so much he bought the identical model before going on vacation. The only thing I'd add would be a second batter and probably the next step better batter at that. The stock battery is pretty good, but the next level up is a lot better. The tripod is okay, but not designed for heavy use....still, works well enough.

It's easy to set it up and then use the remote to start the video while you're shooting. You could even do that at a match....set it up far enough away that you'd catch the whole COF and then put the remote in your pocket and start it right at make ready. R,