Topic: What camcorder?

[shayne]

My Wifes parents bought us a sony handycam dcr-hc28, I am sure this is not a great model, but I have no idea what to look for in a camcorder, we are having a baby and really want to be able to take video's and transfer them to the computer and later to dvd. I am not a real technical person, not looking for cutting edge or the best just a good camera to do home videos of family functions, vacations, and what not. Inportant to us would be ease of use and small size, but they all seem to be pretty small. We most likely won't be doing much editing or anything just point shoot and get it to dvd. I am thinking I want hd based camera as opposed to tape  but maybe someone can clarify what is best for what we want to do. I really appreciate any and all advice, this forum blows my mind to see how much knowledge base there is here, thanks in advance.
Shayne

[shayne]

Oh forgot price range, looking for something in the $600.00 range I think, would be open to spending more if need be but would love to spend less too! so any and all suggestions welcome.
Shayne

[guitard]

From what you've described regarding your usage, I think the Sony handycam that you have will do just fine.

It's always nice having tapes as a backup for family videos.  With a harddrive cam, you have to download everything and store it on disk.  It would really be a bummer to find out the disk you've transferred some special video to has gone bad.

Editing and adding titles, etc. to footage coming off of mini-DV tapes is very easy.  If you plan on sharing the videos at all - you're going to want to edit it, especially if it's something like a kids sporting event. 

[stantheman1976]

I'm partial to the Panasonic PV-GS series.  You can get the GS320 for $400 shipped.  It gives you 3 imaging chips or a sharper picture and provides the most bang for the buck in my opinion.   

[shayne]

Ok so the camera I have will upload to computer? how do I get the tapes to dvd's? I noticed that some of the camcorders work on small dvd's would that be a good option? The only reason I ask is they bought this at best buy and there is a sticker on it if I open it to read the manuels they charge you 15% restock as well as a 14 day return so I want to make sure I am making the right decission.
Shayne

[NOTHINGFAN]

Ok so the camera I have will upload to computer? how do I get the tapes to dvd's?

all you have to do is connect your sony up to your computer via firewire and from there you will have a digital copy and then you can make dvd's from there.

[stantheman1976]

I always recommend avoiding the DVD and hard drive camcorders and sticking with tape.  The reason is that those DVD's will not stand the test of time.  I guarantee you footage shot on a DVD camcorder will not exist in 15 years because the DVD's will become corrupt.  Tape will degrade just like everything else over time but most of your footage will still exist.  Look at VHS and Beta tapes that are 20 years old and still play.  The resolution might be less but the footage on the tapes is still here.

MiniDV is extremely easy to transfer and edit.  If you have a firewire port on your computer hook your camera up with the appropriate cable and use your favorite editing program to "capture" the footage.  With MiniDV you are actually transferring digital 0's and 1's so you're not losing any information during transfer.  Just make sure you choose Type 2 DV-AVI as your container file.  It will take about 13GB per hour of footage but can be manipulated and changed very easily.

[gewwang]

I just got a new camcorder and went with a new Sony camcorder with 60GB hard drive after using a miniDV for the last 7 years.

To me the decision to move from miniDV to hard drives is like moving from dat to hard-drive recorders. The cost of hard drives is never going up and continues going down, just backup to multiple hard drives as with 24/96 audio masters for redundancy.

[tfs8271]

I always recommend avoiding the DVD and hard drive camcorders and sticking with tape.  The reason is that those DVD's will not stand the test of time.  I guarantee you footage shot on a DVD camcorder will not exist in 15 years because the DVD's will become corrupt.  Tape will degrade just like everything else over time but most of your footage will still exist.  Look at VHS and Beta tapes that are 20 years old and still play.  The resolution might be less but the footage on the tapes is still here.

MiniDV is extremely easy to transfer and edit.  If you have a firewire port on your computer hook your camera up with the appropriate cable and use your favorite editing program to "capture" the footage.  With MiniDV you are actually transferring digital 0's and 1's so you're not losing any information during transfer.  Just make sure you choose Type 2 DV-AVI as your container file.  It will take about 13GB per hour of footage but can be manipulated and changed very easily.

What do you think of the Panasonics that record to SD cards?

[shayne]

just relized I have enough posts to +t so everyone gets one! thanks for all the great info.

[beatkilla]

I have used that camera DC 28 and it is fine for what you'll need.

I agree tape is the safest .reliable method.

And you won't get a better picture with the panny 3 chip IMO.I have a vx 2100 3 chip and in good light i can see no difference between the DC 28 and vx 2100.However in low light it smokes it.

Just learn to adjust the exposure on the 28 by default it will add 18db of gain blowing out the hightlights.So back off on the exposure a bit.

[wjlapier]

I have used that camera DC 28 and it is fine for what you'll need.

I agree tape is the safest .reliable method.

And you won't get a better picture with the panny 3 chip IMO.I have a vx 2100 3 chip and in good light i can see no difference between the DC 28 and vx 2100.However in low light it smokes it.

Just learn to adjust the exposure on the 28 by default it will add 18db of gain blowing out the hightlights.So back off on the exposure a bit.

I have the 26 version of the camera you have.  I've used it for shooting my kids playing soccer, track, baseball, football and basketball.  School concerts, family stuff, and vacations.  Tapes are great to have as backup--just don't fall behind like I do.  As others have said, firewire transfer to HD.  Create movie and burn to DVD.  Time consuming but lots of fun.

I'll tell ya little story.  We bought a Sony hi-8 digital camera in '99.  Cost about $1000.  Well, we made lots of  family movies and now the kids are having a ball looking at this old footage of them when they were little. 

Keep rolling tape on the kids!

[shayne]

thanks for all the replies, we ended up exchanging it for the hc38, I liked the feel a little better, also had usb and I am not sure my home computer has fire wire, other than that they are very similar, thanks everyone for the education. +t's to you all.

[stantheman1976]

I always recommend avoiding the DVD and hard drive camcorders and sticking with tape.  The reason is that those DVD's will not stand the test of time.  I guarantee you footage shot on a DVD camcorder will not exist in 15 years because the DVD's will become corrupt.  Tape will degrade just like everything else over time but most of your footage will still exist.  Look at VHS and Beta tapes that are 20 years old and still play.  The resolution might be less but the footage on the tapes is still here.

MiniDV is extremely easy to transfer and edit.  If you have a firewire port on your computer hook your camera up with the appropriate cable and use your favorite editing program to "capture" the footage.  With MiniDV you are actually transferring digital 0's and 1's so you're not losing any information during transfer.  Just make sure you choose Type 2 DV-AVI as your container file.  It will take about 13GB per hour of footage but can be manipulated and changed very easily.

What do you think of the Panasonics that record to SD cards?

Never used it.  I will stick with tape as long as it is sold.  MiniDV is being phased out and I can't stop that but it's a popular format and will still survive for quite a while.  Look at Digital8 and VHS-C.  They are no longer made but you can still buy the tapes at Wal Mart. 

[bluntforcetrauma]

While there is no doubt that MiniDV is being eclipsed by newer formats like DVD, hard disk drive (HDD), and flash memory cards, it does offer a number of advantages. MiniDV is cheap and widely accessible. It's relatively durable, though many users have experienced the frustration of a faulty tape mechanism that spills out the lengths of tape. Cassettes make for easy archiving and the capture process for editing DV is more widely available than any other media.

Most crucial, perhaps, is that DV compression generally offers better quality video than the other formats. Standard definition DVD, HDD, and flash memory camcorders all employ MPEG-2 compression, which has a much lower data rate than DV - almost 1/3 the speed (8.5Mbps versus 25Mbps). Data speed is only one component of video quality, but it is important.