Topic: Panasonic lumix vs camcorder ??

[willndmb]

My son Told me yesterday tht he wants a camcorder and to play around with vids on a Mac

I have seen good reviews for the lumix line of cameras but also see a "cheap" camcorder that looks good or him (hc-v10 he is 8 yrs old so I don't want to spend a lot but also want decent quality)

What are the benefits of going one way or the other?
Tia

[yousef]

I use a couple of Lumix ZS-3s and a Sanyo Xacti HD2000 for videoing gigs.

The Lumixes are cheap, offer nice quality for the money, very nice sound from the internal mics (ie not the bad distortion most PAS cameras offer) and are small and discrete. Replacement higher capacity batteries are cheap to source too. They take nice photos too - to the point that I'll often quite happily leave my SLR at home if I'm feeling lazy. The downside is that I think the newer models now have a maximum of 15mins of continuous video footage and the video quality is obviously not on a par with a dedicated camcorder. Also you might feel vaguely daft holding up what is very clearly a cheap P&S camera to record video, depending on the context.

Given your requirements, I might be tempted to go for a cheap standard definition camcorder second hand so that the editing process won't be hideously slow - if I was buying for a kid, I wouldn't want them losing interest due to jumpy computer playback or while waiting for footage to render. If that isn't an issue, I'd be seriously tempted by an old ZS3 with one of those small tripods used as a handle. Then if he doesn't go for it you have a very capable discrete cam for your gear bag ;o)

[bluntforcetrauma]

I use Lumix and camcorder on MAC. if he wants to create just some video maybe to upload or make a little movie i would go with Lumix.
Lumix has really good detail and image quality, plus its compact.  I use a lumix with HD camcorder for video shots and i use both in projects for movies and uploads and you really cant go wrong with a lumix for its easy and quick conversion to making video and/or movie.
just 2 cents. My lumix camera with the 32GB card gives me 4 hours of HD quality footage. I would invest in extra batteries.

[willndmb]

thanks for the input guys

the only concern i have with a lumix is that some models you can only record for _ minutes at a time. So i want to make sure its not going to cause him issues but for the most part i don't think it would

[bluntforcetrauma]

thanks for the input guys

the only concern i have with a lumix is that some models you can only record for _ minutes at a time. So i want to make sure its not going to cause him issues but for the most part i don't think it would

That is why i made sure i stated that my 32 gig card does 4 hours straight video.  The recording does not stop--but the battery would run out before 4 hours.
It will even give you on the LCD screen the hours,minutes, and seconds as it records.

I use 2 lumix DMC ZS7's