How to select a new camcorder

[janjatul]

I have tried searching the forum(s) for new camcorder and "new camcorder", but have not found anything relevant. If I am missing something please let me know.

Now, I am thinking of getting a new camcorder stepping from 4:3 to 16:9.
I video family and travel and show the results on a normal TV screen after editing in VS10. I am not going for high definition. But I like my videos sharp with good color. I am prepared to spend some 300-800 dollars, but I do not want to spend unnecessarily. I am in a pal-country. I am not interested in still photos with the camcorder.

I do not know how to make a reasonably good choice.

Here are some of the things I think about:

How many pixels do I need?

Is 3 ccds (much) better than one?

Is a camcorder with hard drive out as far as VS is concerned? Shall I stick to miniDV?

Is it the right time to buy now or are there good reasons to postpone (and stay with my 4:3 camcorder)?

Any advice you can give me will be much appreciated.

Thanks!

[Black Lab]

How many pixels do I need?
The more pixels the better picture quality you will get.

Is 3 ccds (much) better than one?
As far as color is concerned, 3 CCDs are better than 1.

Is a camcorder with hard drive out as far as VS is concerned? Shall I stick to miniDV?
As it seems to me, consumer camcorders (in the price range you have noted) are shying away from mini-dv in favor of dvd and hd cams. My personal preference (for ease of use and editing) would still be mini-dv, but your choices will be somewhat limited.

Is it the right time to buy now or are there good reasons to postpone (and stay with my 4:3 camcorder)?
It's as good a time as any, unless you want to wait until it's closer to Christmas and retailers are trying to get rid of old models.

Any advice you can give me will be much appreciated.
Go to a retailer and actually test some camcorders. You don't have to buy from them (you can usually buy cheaper online - B & H Photo comes to mind) but someone's advice on a certain model may not fit your wants or needs.

[Sektionschef]

Hi Janjatul

Check out www.camcorderinfo.com.
It has lots of reviews of many camcorders and a very good user forum.
For this price range I would check out the Sony HC96 or the Panasonic GS320. Both are miniDV models and are recommended for UVS11.
Regards
Sektionschef

[Clevo]

I'm in the same boat:

the models I am looking at are:

The Panasonic NV-GS230

Sony DCR-HC48 Mini DV Digital Handycam Video Camera

Sony DCR-HC96 Mini DV Digital Handycam Video Camera


I WAS thinking of waiting till Xmas but like with all other technologies there is always some good reason to wait a little later. hehe

Panasonic have the 3CCD (really also depends how bid they are and the effective pixel counts) While sony have the Better lens and I do like the sound of a docking station

[lancecarr]

I agree that camcorderinfo.com is about the best resource around for evaluating cams. Here's how I used it.

First I looked at the technology, HDD, HD, DV, MPEG2 SD and HD, AVCHD and on and on.....!
I decided to go with DV Tape until all the other technologies settled knowing it will be two or three years before anything meaningful emerges.
THEN, I looked at the price range I was looking at and selected three or four cams that fitted.

THEN I ignored the reviews and went straight to the scores they post for each feature of each cam and added up the RAW score. I ignored the WEIGHTED score for the same reason I ignored the review blurb. EVERYONE has their own preferences, likes and dislikes, brand loyalty or brand disaffection. Everyone has an agenda...except me!

I only paid attention to the RAW scores that were relevant to what I wanted from a cam. For example manual controls are not important for me, I have an 8 year old son and there is no way I would have time to "set up" a shot! Conversely, fast and reliable auto function are a must.
Then without any bias I narrowed it to the two that scored the best.

THEN, I went to the review of each to look for any "deal breaker" within the review on each cam, some disastrous feature that I couldn't live with.
In my case it came down to the Panasonic PV GS250 or the Sony HC 90.
I went with the HC 90 because of better lowlight performance from the third inch CCD rather than the three CCD's on the Panny which gave better color in full light but was weak in lowlight by comparison.

FINALLY, I went to the relevant forum for that cam on the site to see if there were any signifigant problems emerging. Remember the majority of people reporting problems may not be representative of an overall problem, maybe just that posters problem.

However, it is not an ideal world we live in. I gained good color performance but not the best possible, I gained the best possible lowlight performance at the time but lost out on a proprietary Sony battery configuration that they dropped next model.

It's all swings and roundabouts...you have to define what yours are.

[MrA]

Since this is about camcorders, how about moving the thread to a revelent topic. I love hearing about camcorder technologies, but, since this forum is about VideoStudio, and it's not a camcorder, it's a soft-o-ware product, think it would benefit more if it were moved.. Just a thought..

Side note, the "video" forum here is perfect for this kind of discussion. Actually is it encouraged there.. Please share thoughts and questions on video production, equipment, tips and tricks there..

[lancecarr]

Hehe! I have to agree.
I just finished that last post, hit the submit button and thought,...hmmm "This is a bit off the subject of VS."

[Clevo]

I posted this subject in the Video forum as suggested to me via PM... there has been little replies...in this forum there were quicker replies.

[janjatul]

I am very glad for all responses!

The reason I posted in the VS forum is that I use VS10 to edit my videos and that I find it most important that my new camcorder works extremelly well with VS.

So I wonder if a camcorder with hard drive and thus compressed video will cause problems in the edit phase. Or if it is a good thing to have your videos already compressed in the camcorder thus saving storage on the PC compared to miniDVs. My original miniDVs are now spread over several external (mostly offline) drives.

As to more pixels better, some salespersons in the stores say that more pixels is only good for stills. Is this true or how many pixel will I need to get good video footage.

Once again thanks for your interest and comments!

[Sektionschef]

Here is something I can add regarding Videostudio:
All versions of videostudio have a terrible bug(see this thread: http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic.php?t=15084) concerning mpeg2 smartrendering. Videostudio inserts distortions(artefacts) at the end of transitions or titles if smartrendering is enabled.
This means that if you like to use Videostudio to edit the video of your camcorder then you should NOT go for a camcorder that records to mpeg2 format.
This includes all miniDVD, Harddisk and Memorycard camcorders.
Instead you should go for a miniDV Camcorder, Videostudio works best with the DV-avi format that is delivered by the miniDV Camcorders.
Regards
Sektionschef

[skier-hughes]

As to more pixels better, some salespersons in the stores say that more pixels is only good for stills. Is this true or how many pixel will I need to get good video footage.

As with anything each answer is true.
Video only uses 720x576, so on the whole a camcorder in the consumer price range means that more pixels is just good for better stills.
When you move up in price and in particualr to professional series camcorders, then more pixels means better video, but these pixels are larger in size than on consumer models, meaning they can pick up more light and give better definition.

For consumer I would not worry about more pixels, but 3ccd's would be a benefit.