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"er-no / Mr. Happy"

Ok, you guys seem to be the people to talk to!

Video cameras!
I want one!

Unfortunatley, I know absolutely nowt about the things and would probably go into Dixons and buy the world's most expensive piece of poo.

So I am coming to you for help!

This camera isn't going to be used for making films (dodgy or otherwise). Just want one as like a general video camera for all occassions etc.

Basic requirements:
£800 or less (could you suggest a range of decent ones?)
Decent video quality but obviously not top of the range
Not too small (saw some JVC-D7(?) and had to hold it in 3 fingers. It was rubbish.

erm, basically, a decent camera at a decent price.

Oh, and wheres the best place to buy them? The net seems to, on average, be about £100 cheaper than the high street. Is there anywhere you recommend?

Cheers for your help here.

GH

Yep you can just swap away my friend. :)

Cheers for everyone's replies to this (all three of ya ;-) )

Appreciate that. Considering this Cannon one is £420, it seems like a good deal! I'm a bit of a novice at this so the next question is likely to be dumb but:

It seems you buy DV tape type things to record onto? (Sony 60 min ones etc). Can you then take the tape thing out and replace it with a new one or do you have to fit one and upload everything onto a PC when its full?

I guess you can just keeping swapping tapes till your heart is content as it you be pretty dumb otherwise.

Just thought I would check!

Hi.

Welly welly welly. We are talking sub-800 cameras, and considering its the year 2002 I won't recommend anything but digital video (dv). Unless you have a few thousand quid and you can purchase a decent analog/dv hybrid, which is nice. Here is a rundown of what I know in terms of companies and the quality:

JVC/Sony - Average sound, average digital quality, I would call Sony the bodgers of DV cameras, they do make household cameras, but in a mainstream market way. Also, whats with Sony's and JVC's bloody tiny cameras, there is no point. We aren't Japan and we have big hands. They are stupid. Buy one that you can actually hold and use. One that you also can press one button at a time instead of everything on the camera with your thumb

Panasonic - Very good sound, not that greater image.

Canon - High quality sound for a DV camera and high quality picture for a DV camera. The Canon range of the MV's are superb cameras and can be brought and found for under £700. With DVin/out ports as well so you can suck any edited footage back to the tape through the firewire this is the DV camera to own. Also (which is cool) they come with an advanced shoe which means external mics and lights can be attached.

Warning - never buy a camera on the sodding digital zoom specs.
Warning - never use digital zoom, the image is crap and its actually made up.

CanonMV500. Try it. :)

*falls out of the sky into the topic*

'Hang on, I was just practising magic, lemme read the topic and replies to date...'

The one I have is pretty small and yet fantastic for the price and quality, I've seen it in a few magazines and I always gets rated as the best or at least the best buy.

I can't remember how much it was, my brother got it on holiday becuase it worked out cheaper but I think it's around 500 quid, which is actually quite expensive I think, here I'll go get you a link.

http://www.techtronics.com/uk/shop/ 851-panasonic-nv-gs1b-dv-digital-camcorder.html

Just under 400, not bad.

Starlight wrote:
> I bet er-no suggests a Cannon model.
>
> Anyway it depends what you want to do with it, is it just a bit of fun
> you want to muck about with or are you going to be wanting to edit
> images/streams on your compuer etc.
>
> I've got a pretty mint Panasonic digital one, but the sound doesn't
> pick up too good unless you're pretty close to the person but a quick
> upgrade is all I need. Do you want one with a flip out screen?
> Although they're pretty standard nowadays.


To be honest, digital would be best but I doubt I'll get time to do much image editting etc. "bit of fun" is probably the best description. Flip screen not essential, but probably useful as I am a bit of an amateur at this.

How much did you pay and where did did you get yours from, mate?

I bet er-no suggests a Cannon model.

Anyway it depends what you want to do with it, is it just a bit of fun you want to muck about with or are you going to be wanting to edit images/streams on your compuer etc.

I've got a pretty mint Panasonic digital one, but the sound doesn't pick up too good unless you're pretty close to the person but a quick upgrade is all I need. Do you want one with a flip out screen? Although they're pretty standard nowadays.

Popped

For when Joby gets off his lazy backside and replies
;-)

Mr. Happy wrote:
>Oh the joys of not having any lectures to go to.

Git - bloody sciving oxbridge people ;-)


Nice one for the tip mate, cheers. Hadn't considered that!
If I can get a decent setup (inc firewire) for £800 then thats cool. If not, I'll probably do without.

Cummon Joby, where are ya?

If you want to do any sort of computer editing you're going to need to check that you camera has a firewire output (don't worry about the input - the output is an input as well but it's blocked fo import duty reasons (so they don't count as VCR's) and it can be unblocked) and make sure you factor in enough money to get a firewire card/hub for your PC.

Ask er-no about cameras though. He knows these things :-)

I'm now going to attempt to make titles that dissolve into smoke. Oh the joys of not having any lectures to go to.