Tech question!

[uftaki]

Hey out there...! This is a question to all tech-saavy people on my friends list. If you could give me any info on the following, I'd be most thankful. :3

I'll be going on vacation in May, and I'd like to bring a camcorder with me (I have a photo camera; I want video + sound ^.^;). I have NO idea what sort of camera I'd want or need, though. So if any of you out there can give me any reccommendations/comments on various brands/types, thank you. :)

I'm not looking for anything too fancy, nor the most expensive one on the block. I don't want the cheapest thing out there, either, though. Something affordable, but reliable. A good/decent battery life'd be nice, too. (I'm assuming ALL batteries are rechargeable in these things?) I have an Acer PC, so it would have to be compatable with that. Is video stored on SD cards? Can you transfer the video to the PC through SD cards, or a USB cable? Can you also hook up the camcorder to the TV, and show the video that way? What format(s) are the video recordings saved in?

...and anything else I might need to know... Thanks for all your help. *^__^*

Comments

[koh4711.livejournal.com]

For me, when it comes to camcorders, there's Panasonic, then there's everyone else.

Seriously, I can't recommend them enough. I've got a Panasonic DV351 Mini-DV camcorder that's going on eleven years old that still shoots beautiful video, and that camera's been everywhere... at sea, in snow, banged around at San Diego Comic Con... it's got a few scars on the case, but they can take a pretty fair beating and run well. I've got a super small Panasonic that is my current one, and I might upgrade video camera at some point this year, and you can bet I'll have a Panasonic then, too(heck, my Panasonic point and shoot still camera has HD capability, and the video is AMAZING on it).

I'd recommend getting either a hard drive camera or one that uses SD cards. The SD cameras tend to be a little smaller, but you get longer run times on the hard drive cameras, and it seems like most of them are going to that format, anyway. Some of the hard drive cams require Firewire, so if your computer doesn't have a Firewire port, make sure you check that. This is part of the reason having an SD camera is pretty easy. Most modern camcorders will have some way of hooking up to the TV, most going through audio/video cables, and using the camera itself as the player. The format varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, quite a few will use propriatary formats so you have to use their software. But there are converters out there for most of it, and Microsoft Movie Maker will usually read most of the files. A lot of cameras have "Export to YouTube" functions built in, if you want to share a video online.

Most cameras have a pretty decent battery life, but I'd highly recommend picking up a back-up battery. Most times, you can go to Amazon or other online retailers and get a third party battery cheaper than what the brand batteries run(for both my Panasonic point and shoot and my Nikon, I got back-up batteries in the $10-15 range). I'd also suggest getting a UV filter, as they're not expensive and give another layer of protection to the lens.

I'm not sure what price range you're looking for, but you can get high quality cameras for as low as $200, if you look around for the right sales. A lot of cameras brag about HD, but picture quality in camcorders is highly dependent on the CCD sensor and its size. Most cameras are single CCD, while really high end ones will be 3CCD. As a general rule, the smaller the camcorder, the smaller the CCD and the lower quality of picture. Most camcorders have a decent optical zoom.

I really like this site, camcorderinfo.com (http://www.camcorderinfo.com/), to do research on a potential purchase. What I've done in the past is figure out my price range, narrow it down to a few cameras I like, then look at review sites, preferably ones where you can compare the cameras head to head. And I also always check out YouTube to see what video from the cameras looks like. And I always like to find them in-store and get a feel for them in person. I was really hyped on one video camera once, went to Best Buy and was stunned at how difficult it was to use, so I passed on it.

Hope all of this helps!

[uftaki.livejournal.com]

Whooo...! This was AMAZING help! Thank you so much!! :D