Camera - I know, I can't find the other threads

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Jperson
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Camera - I know, I can't find the other threads

Post by Jperson »

I know there are other threads about this and I've been searching for this, and there are so many, I jsut haven't turned anything up, so i've given in. So can you help me, or provide a link to a thread that would help?

I'm looking for a cheapy camcorder (cost around £300-£450) that's $609.12 (round up - at the ucrrent exchange rate) to $913.68 (rounded up - at the current exchange rate). Erm, yeah, so I'm looking for this best camcorder out there (in your opinion) at this price.

(Ohh and I'm not really interested in mini DV etc. although may be persuaded otherwise).
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Clarence
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Post by Clarence »

Why would you not want a MiniDV camera? Everything before it is out of date. The new hard drive cameras are not compatible yet, and DVD camcorders are really terrible for the sole reason that you cannot edit the footage.

Take a look at the Panasonic GS320 mini-dv camera. It's about $400 USD, has 3 CCDs, films natively in widescreen. The whole GS family is good. No microphone inputs, though.
Ornsack
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Post by Ornsack »

Mini DV is the ONLY way to go.

Not only is it the best quality on the cheap, but you can get them for not much more than £150 these days in places like Currys
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Kentertainment
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Post by Kentertainment »

The only thing you're going to get today that isn't miniDV and you can actually own is a really old 8mm camera (with expensive film and harder to find), a poor quality Hi8 off ebay, or a high-end HD camera that uses a P2 card. Under your circumstances, I'd go with miniDV, but I'd look for something with 3CCD's and a little more power to your f-stop adjustment. You may be able to score a GL1 at that price somewhere if you get another hundred dollars.
Adam
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Post by Adam »

I have been very happy with my Panasonic minDV. Any of the other storage formats will be a crappy compramise. You may start out with a higher resolution but because you then have to compress, it will introduce compression artifacts.
The MPEG based compressions are not very good for editing because they are not frame based. So you will need to use/buy a high spec PC to do the editing. In the end unless you have some way of delivering your film in HD you will probably end up writing it to DVD for which miniDV is perfectly good, especially in your price range.
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Post by foxwood »

ya for that price range the best you can get is miniDV, I keep hearing from a lot of people that tape of any kind is dead, but that just isn't true for people in our situation yet. Sure in a few more years prosumer and consumer cammeras might start using P2 cards of XD disks but until then all that is reserved for the $20,000 cammara people.
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Post by Jperson »

OK, I'm happy with miniDV, just got the chance to use a Panasonic GS500 which is good, but doesn't have a plug for headphones which is not good.
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