Non-motoring > Buying a camcorder. Miscellaneous
Thread Author: legacylad Replies: 18
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New Sun 19 Dec 10 21:13 
 Buying a camcorder. - legacylad
After gleaning much knowledge from you lot re a new DVD player, I am going to treat myself to a 'mini' camcorder.
The main criteria ie ease of use, and it will spend a lot of time in my rucsac!
My budget is circa £200, but would happily spend less.
As before, suggestions please.
Many thanks
LL
Last edited by: Pugugly on Sun 19 Dec 10 at 21:19
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New Sun 19 Dec 10 21:22 
 Buying a camcorder. - spamcan61
If you haven't read it yet there's a fair amount of relevant discussion in this thread:-

www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?t=3435
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New Mon 20 Dec 10 13:34 
 Buying a camcorder. - TheManWithNoName
I'm thinking of buying one of these.
Sanyo VPC CG20

Its a full HD pocket video camera with stills facility. Got some vouchers to spend at Jessops.
I've currently got a Panasonic camcorder thingy which takes micro DV tapes but I've got no way to 'upload' the footage onto DVD unless I pay someone to do it.
At least with the Sanyo it can all be uploaded onto the pc via usb cable.
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New Mon 20 Dec 10 13:41 
 Buying a camcorder. - rtj70
>> I've currently got a Panasonic camcorder thingy which takes micro DV tapes but I've got no
>>way to 'upload' the footage onto DVD

Do you not have a PC? Plug it in and use something like Microsoft Movie Maker to capture the footage and then burn to DVD. But you will probably need a IEEE1394/Firewire connection in the computer.

Back to legacylad's question, there are many who are happy with some of the pocket sized MP4 video recorders . Some are a lot less than your budget and take SD cards. Isn't the Flip a popular camera and Kodak have a Zi8.
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New Mon 20 Dec 10 13:46 
 Buying a camcorder. - spamcan61
>> Do you not have a PC? Plug it in and use something like Microsoft Movie
>> Maker to capture the footage and then burn to DVD. But you will probably need
>> a IEEE1394/Firewire connection in the computer.
>>
I would expect it to be possible using USB (slowly) if no Firewire available, see Microsoft's how to:-

support.microsoft.com/kb/314575
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New Mon 20 Dec 10 13:48 
 Buying a camcorder. - rtj70
Firewire is better - but it will depend on the make of camera. My Sony should work over USB as well but works better over Firewire.
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New Mon 20 Dec 10 13:49 
 Buying a camcorder. - Zero
Firewire is dead technology for consumers. USB 3 and 4 is the future.
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 20 Dec 10 at 13:50
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New Mon 20 Dec 10 13:51 
 Buying a camcorder. - rtj70
I was only offering advice for the member above who already has an older camcorder. Anything new is likely to be USB based and have either a hard drive or memory card for storage too.
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New Mon 20 Dec 10 14:03 
 Buying a camcorder. - TheManWithNoName
thanks rtj. I could upload via that method but I don't have the cable or the correct port/software on my home pc. Plus the mini dv machine is bulkier, noisier etc.
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New Mon 20 Dec 10 14:34 
 Buying a camcorder. - spamcan61
>> thanks rtj. I could upload via that method but I don't have the cable or
>> the correct port/software on my home pc. Plus the mini dv machine is bulkier, noisier
>> etc.
>>

If it's a Windows PC from XP onwards it's highly unlikely that Windows Movie Maker isn't lurking on there somewhere, that would at least allow you to backup and edit the DV tapes onto the HDD.

Try going 'start' then 'run' type 'moviemk.exe' in the box, hit return and see what happens.
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New Mon 20 Dec 10 13:54 
 Buying a camcorder. - spamcan61
>> Firewire is dead technology for consumers. USB 3 and 4 is the future.
>>

Well yeah, but the existing hardware is (hopefully) Firewire, which should give much better real world transfer speed than USB2.0 high speed.
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New Mon 20 Dec 10 14:40 
 Buying a camcorder. - rtj70
For tape based camcorders, getting video onto the computer is by playing back the tape. So Firewire vs USB 2 our better is a non issue bandwidth wise. For hard disk or flash based then faster is better to speed up transfers. And because it's usually as a USB mas storage device Firewire is becoming less useful to have.
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New Mon 20 Dec 10 15:13 
 Buying a camcorder. - Tooslow
I've not come across 4. I thought Intel had some fibre optic solution due early next year that was going to usurp USB.

USB will rule for a long time though as there is so much that uses it. There's not much that can exploit the full capacity of 3, but wait until tomorrow.
John
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New Wed 22 Dec 10 10:04 
 Buying a camcorder. - ToMoCo
No actual experience of this, but looks like a reasonable buy from maplins

tinyurl.com/24tkes6
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New Wed 22 Dec 10 10:40 
 Buying a camcorder. - Focusless
>> tinyurl.com/24tkes6

Link doesn't work for me :(
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New Wed 22 Dec 10 10:44 
 Buying a camcorder. - VxFan
Does for me. It directs to Maplin's website (no, not the holiday camp)
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New Wed 22 Dec 10 10:45 
 Buying a camcorder. - Zero
works for me too. Hi De Hi
Last edited by: Zero on Wed 22 Dec 10 at 10:45
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New Wed 22 Dec 10 11:34 
 Buying a camcorder. - Focusless
Works for me as well now - tried it a few times before, honest! Strange.
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New Wed 22 Dec 10 16:16 
 Buying a camcorder. - spamcan61
>> Works for me as well now - tried it a few times before, honest! Strange.
>>
There's something bizarre in Maplin's website coding, many times in the past I've posted links to different items and they always ended up at rechargeable batteries for some reason.

EDIT

Anyway, a couple of relevant HUKD threads:-

www.hotukdeals.com/deals/toshiba-camileo-s20-full-hd-1080p-c/825596

www.hotukdeals.com/deals/panasonic-hdc-sd60-camcorder-273-60/813767
Last edited by: spamcan61 on Wed 22 Dec 10 at 16:18
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