Camcorder purchase

[lkazista]

Curious if any of you have a Mini DV camcorder that you would recommend. I am missing a lot of my 3 moth olds activities, and would love to have LOML catch them on tape if possible. Some sites say Canon, others say Sony, but to be honest, you fellas are the ones I trust.

So, what say you?

Thanks in advance,

Lee Kazista

[DaveW]

I'll say Panasonic - I think the one I have is the GS15... it's really small, and it has 24x optical zoom (though I haven't tried that to the max yet - I think it also has some image stabilization for the times that you do zoom that much).

Realistically though, you want to get a camcorder that's not nice-and-shiny - my daughter stops everything as soon as she sees a camera and wants to play with that... kinda makes it difficult to capture anything on video (or as stills either)

[bhbuster]

We have used two different models of Panasonics where I work and show to have great picture quality and seem to be quite durable. I can't think of the particular model numbers at this moment though.

Brian

[maxparot]

You might consider a good digital still cam that has a movie mode. Many do a fine job with video for 30-60 second clips. Most home movies end up being nothing more than a bunch of clips and starting out digital will allow you to edit them on your home computer and record them to CD or DVD which would allow you to send them to family.

[jdschulteis]

I like my Sony TRV-19. Bought it a couple of years ago when my ten-year-old Hi-8 Sony died in the middle of a vacation. Chose that model because it was the best of the bunch at the Wal-Mart in West Yellowstone. Very compact and has good battery life. Two features it doesn't have are capturing stills to a memory card and capturing analog video (got the latter feature on the Sony Digital-8 cam that I bought later, because I needed a way to play back my old Hi-8 tapes).

If you go with Mini DV, choose one brand of tape and stay with it. Mixing tape brands can gum up the transport with incompatible lubricants.

If you go with a still cam's movie mode like maxparot suggests, be sure the cam can "stream" video to its memory card. Otherwise I can guarantee your little one will do something amazing/cute/hilarious and you will miss it because your cam is busy copying the previous clip from its buffer RAM to the card. I wouldn't settle for less than 640x480, 30 fps video either, but that's more a matter of taste.

[scorrpio]

My camera is a Sony TRV-22 - very much like previous poster's but it has a memory stick slot for saving pictures. Bought it in January 2004 for ~$600. I love the camera - it is very compact, stock battery life is very good, though I bought a larger battery right away for backup. Larger battery can go through 3 tapes before needing a recharge. Camera does not have a built-in light, but has a shoe for attaching accessory light, and has a nightshot mode - it looks 'nightvision green', but at least you see what you are shooting. I shot some priceless pieces of my infant daughter at night, waving about her legs and arms in her sleep. A real nifty feature (that other newer cameras might include too) is End Search. Say, you were reviewing what you shot before. With a single button, you can tell the camera to seek the exact end of recorded area on tape so that you don't overwrite anything and don't leave gaps. I also love the touchscreen LCD. I had a JVC Cybercam (also MiniDV) camera before that, and was not impressed.

The key to filming children is tripod. You can buy one for like $20, and it makes things a lot simpler. Set camera on tripod, and point at the the kid. Now you can play with the kid instead of distracting her with the camera. And you can use the remote (included) to start/stop recording and zoom. The LCD screen rotates into facing forward position so you can monitor it. And when you later want to film her school concert, or something, tripod is just indispensable.

I also have a Canon PowerShot 5 megapixel camera that can do 60-second video clips, and I strongly disagree that it makes a viable alternative for a camcorder. With children, you never know if they'll make that funny face or that cooing sound just after your 60-second limit rolls in. Trying to shoot video that way is akin to driving in bumper-to-bumper traffic. And likewise, while I have a mem stick in my camera for stills, the quality is so inferior compared to my 5MP Canon that I never use the Sony for pictures.

The idea is to shoot lots of footage and then edit. I buy miniDV tapes in bulk and I never reuse them. Shoot, label, set write-protect tab, archive and make an entry in the tape database on my PC. My Sony has editing feature built in, where you can specify what pieces and in what order you want from a tape, and it will output them in that order to the connected recording device (VCR or DVD recorder). It also has a built-in IR blaster that lets it control the pause function of the recording device. It works, but I personally prefer to capture the footage to my PC via Firewire and then edit with Adobe Premiere.

[leehljp]

Low Light video capture a big help

I did not see it listed above, (reading too fast) but low light situations are very common. Kids church and school plays often present lower than normal light situations. Birthday parties with the candles only do real well with low light capture cameras, but terrible with non low light cameras.

If this is not going to be an occasionaly situation, you can get by with a little less expensive model.

[scorrpio]

You really have two options for low light. A built-in or accessory light is often out of question.

Option 1: (the kind I have on my Sony) is the nightvision mode. The resulting image is black-and-white with a greenish cast, but at least everything is visible. I used it many times where it was dark, with good results.

Option 2: get a camera with a larger lens that can gather in more light and has 3CCDs (read: triple sensitivity) Problem is, cameras of this sort are prosumer-level, they are usually a lot larger and cost 3-5 times as much than regular camcorders.

One more thing to consider: sometimes, even though the low-light image is real dark, it still contains sufficient data. Good editing software like the Premiere I use, can correct this and make the picture much brighter and more defined.

[psal2]

I like the Mini DVD ones (prices are coming down). Really easy to use after the filming is done...just pop it into a DVD player. You can also burn to a PC and make a bigger DVD. You can do that with MiniDV but you might need a capture card. With Mini DVD, you don't.

[maxparot]

I like the Mini DVD ones (prices are coming down). Really easy to use after the filming is done...just pop it into a DVD player. You can also burn to a PC and make a bigger DVD. You can do that with MiniDV but you might need a capture card. With Mini DVD, you don't.

Acttually you don't need a capture card if the Cam has a USB or Firewire interface conection. Most do! If you were to use a capture card you would be converting from digital to analog and back to digital to get it from your cam to the computer. Using USB or Firewire keeps it as a digital stream preserving the picture quality before editing.

[psal2]

I knew that but brain farted...thanks for reminding me.