what camcorder to get?

[watermelony2k]

hey guys, i want to get a camcorder for the first time and have a budget of 300-450 dollars but among the formats (minidv tape, hard drive, flash memory) I don't know what to get! Welp

 

[Small White Car]

I don't have specific models to suggest, but I would advise getting a camera that records on some kind of flash memory chip.

Hard drives and tapes are more trouble than they're worth. Feel free to avoid them for the rest of your life.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Also make sure that the camcorder works with your preferred editing software.

 

[Amaris]

hey guys, i want to get a camcorder for the first time and have a budget of 300-450 dollars but among the formats (minidv tape, hard drive, flash memory) I don't know what to get! Welp

Get something with a digital memory card. This works for several reasons:

1] You can record crisp, seamless audio and video.
2] Fewer moving parts means longer camcorder life.
3] You can connect your camcorder directly to your TV or computer
4] You can easily burn the video to DVD.
5] Digital media cards are very inexpensive.

Here's one that lets you store on both DVD-Rs or Media cards and it's $300:Sony Handicam Digital

 

[Guartho]

Get something with a digital memory card. This works for several reasons:

1] You can record crisp, seamless audio and video.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Sony+-+...ci_sku=9178061&ref=06&loc=01&id=1218046366905

This particular one I must add to. It's accurate, but make sure you don't set the camera to "OMG, I can get 1 billion hours of video on a 1 gig card with this setting!" The more video you can fit on the card by changing camera settings, the lower the quality will be. In some cases your camera will not have changeable settings so make sure you buy one that does or you could get stuck with shitty video all the time.

To the other posts I would add to stay away from those mini-DVD cameras. They are a nightmare. I have a lot of people bring those things in to copy their footage onto something else and it's always at best a big hassle. At worst their footage is irrecoverably gone.

 

[Amaris]

Get something with a digital memory card. This works for several reasons:

1] You can record crisp, seamless audio and video.

This particular one I must add to. It's accurate, but make sure you don't set the camera to "OMG, I can get 1 billion hours of video on a 1 gig card with this setting!" The more video you can fit on the card by changing camera settings, the lower the quality will be. In some cases your camera will not have changeable settings so make sure you buy one that does or you could get stuck with shitty video all the time.

To the other posts I would add to stay away from those mini-DVD cameras. They are a nightmare. I have a lot of people bring those things in to copy their footage onto something else and it's always at best a big hassle. At worst their footage is irrecoverably gone.

True, but the reason I recommended this one was because it was fully digital media capable, and the price was really good, from a reputable manufacturer in a retail location that can be found most places.

I do agree on the resolution issue, make sure the quality is "better" or "best". "Good" is usually not good enough.