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"Digital Camcorders"

I'm interested in buying a Digital Camcorder but hardly know anything about it. I'm interested in possibly making some home videos and transferring them to my Hard Drive. How much space is this going to take up? What format will this be in? What sort of price for a good digital camcorder? How long can you film for on a digital camcorder? Can you buy a digital camcorder that films directly to AVI and is easily transferrable to PC using USB and can also store a few hours on its built in hard drive?

Just post anything you think might be helpful to me in buying a Digital Camcorder.

Just buy the damn thing and help save SR!

Thanks for your help.

Peter Venkman wrote:
> Are your video samples on the highest quality available because they
> are good quality for the very low price.

They were compressed using Windows Video Maker from the 640x480 WMVs the camera records. Depends on the purpose the video is for - mine was for streaming on the net, so I made it quite low quality. A bigger file would have been nearer the original quality.

128Mb does about 13 minutes, so 1Gb should do over an hour. Then you can just replace the card and carry on filming, or transfer it all to PC.

Well... I didn't like to say... not good customer service!

I realised I was being an idiot as soon as I posted that by actually reading the link monkey_man posted.

Peter Venkman wrote:
> Can you buy bigger memory sticks so you can store a little longer than
> 13 minutes. I want a Camcorder that can do a few hours.

You can expand the memory of the Mustek with SD or MMC cards.
[URL]http://specialreserve.co.uk/memory-cards/[/URL]

Thanks for that monkey_man...very helpful. I will seriously consider buying one of these after my holiday.

I'm now reading my way through the reviews.

Are your video samples on the highest quality available because they are good quality for the very low price.

I'm an idiot.

How much you planning to spend? I've got the DV5000, you can get it from here for under £100. It films in 640x480, with sound, straight to WMV and takes about 13 minutes of footage + sound from my 128 SD card and has 32Mb onboard. USB port, it works as a portable drive, so you can just drop and drag the files off/on it. Records mp3s, works as an mp3 player if you put music files on it. Takes good quality, high res images 2048xsomething. Pretty amazing bit of kit considering the price.

£74.99: [URL]http://specialreserve.co.uk/Mustek-DV5000-41-Meg_6023_r.html[/URL]

The only thing I would say is that you need very good light to take pictures and video, and it only works really well outside.

Some video samples (edited in Windows Media Editor, but still indicative)
[URL]http://www.threecircles.co.uk/media/video/ralph.wmv[/URL]
[URL]http://www.threecircles.co.uk/media/video/ralphinbox.wmv[/URL]