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looking for a cheapish camcorder... (1 Viewer)

postcardcv

postcardcv

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I'm currently trying to get a decent but fairly cheap camcorder, I have a JCV miniDV and an old Sony Hi8 both of which give good results but they are bulky and getting the video onto my PC is a big hassle. So I've decided to get a new one, either a DVD or flash memory one... I started by ordering a Sony DVD115 which was faulty and the retailer couldn't supply a replacement. Next I found a good deal on a Samsung F30 (an SD camcorder), this wouldn't focus properly indoor and the image quality was shocking (significantly worse than video I've shot on my Canon G9).

I'm now looking at the Panasonic S26SD and the JVC MS100 but just don't know what to go for, does anyone have any suggestions? My other thoughts are to try a superzoom like the Canon SX10 (anyone know how the quality compares to a dedicated camcorder) or I can buy a friends Canon DC95 (DVD camcorder). I'm going round in circles and would really like to get it sorted so any advice would be great.
 
Having spent some time looking at sample videos on the web it seems that the JVC MS100 is out as the image quality isn't great. I also think I should rule out a superzoom, clearly they don't do the job as well as a dedicated video camera. I'm coming to the conclusion that to get the IQ I want I should either stump up the money for an HD camcorder or put up with the less convenient 8cm DVD format.
 
To give you an idea of what to expect from a Camera that also records video, I recorded this on my Fuji S8100. It's 640 * 480 resolution, like most Cameras apart from those that record in HD.

EDIT: I should have added that I recorded that in poor light, you better results in better light.
 
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I'm not sure if its in budget, but I remember seeing some nice videos on vimeo from the Sanyo HD1010 and the slightly cheaper HD1000. Vimeo is a good video website (the footage is compressed far less than youtube) to look for sample footage.
 
postcardcv said:
I'm currently trying to get a decent but fairly cheap camcorder, I have a JCV miniDV and an old Sony Hi8 both of which give good results but they are bulky and getting the video onto my PC is a big hassle. So I've decided to get a new one, either a DVD or flash memory one... I started by ordering a Sony DVD115 which was faulty and the retailer couldn't supply a replacement. Next I found a good deal on a Samsung F30 (an SD camcorder), this wouldn't focus properly indoor and the image quality was shocking (significantly worse than video I've shot on my Canon G9).

I'm now looking at the Panasonic S26SD and the JVC MS100 but just don't know what to go for, does anyone have any suggestions? My other thoughts are to try a superzoom like the Canon SX10 (anyone know how the quality compares to a dedicated camcorder) or I can buy a friends Canon DC95 (DVD camcorder). I'm going round in circles and would really like to get it sorted so any advice would be great.
Click to expand...

The Panasonics are very good! they had them on one of the shopping channels on Sky TV recently and got very good reviews
 
today I had a play with a Panasonic S26 and a JVC HD10, both were nice in the hand and seemed fine. I took footage on the Panasonic on an SD card to review at home and have not been impressed with what I've seen. It's a real step up from the Samsung I tried but it still isn't even at the level of my old miniDV camcorder let alone the DVD one that I've been using. I was hoping to check footage form the JVC too but for some strange reason it didn't record to the memory card despite claiming that it would so I'm none the wiser about the quality of it. I'm starting to wonder if I should just save myself some money and stick with my old one...
 
I recently tried the Standard definition Panasonic SD26 with the 70x zoom and I cannot say that I was very impressed with the video quality at the maximum zoom. It was not too bad at moderate zoom ranges but overall I decided it was a camcorder to avoid. Sorry Panasonic, because your High Def models are excellent.
 
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