top rated camcorders under 300 image
Sexxylexi
I want to purchase a camcorder but I don't know what features I should look for. As far as the zoom, battery, DVD or hardrive, etc... any and all information with be helpful, please. I'm not looking for anything hitech...I just want to record family gatherings and my daughters steps in life. So something in the price range of $300.00. Thanks...
Answer
Here's a helpful camcorder buying guide that explains what features to look for:
http://www.easycamcorders.com/content/Beginners-Guide.htm
& a list of the top camcorders for 2006:
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/CamInfo-Selects-2006.htm
where the Canon ZR400 was rated the best for the under $300 catagory - you should also look at the Canon Elura 100 (rated best of the year) as the street price is just a little over $300.
Here's a helpful camcorder buying guide that explains what features to look for:
http://www.easycamcorders.com/content/Beginners-Guide.htm
& a list of the top camcorders for 2006:
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/CamInfo-Selects-2006.htm
where the Canon ZR400 was rated the best for the under $300 catagory - you should also look at the Canon Elura 100 (rated best of the year) as the street price is just a little over $300.
Researching for best video camera...Sony?
Brady's Mo
I'm looking for feedback on video cameras. We own everything Sony, so that would be our first guess, but not dead set on that brand. Will be using it for new baby and family. Would like to stay under $1000.00. Thanks for any feedback!
Oh yeah, we don't want one that records directly to a disc. We would like a memory stick or something.
Answer
Sony certainly makes some great camcorders... I have two HDV (tape-based high definition) camcorders, and one is a Sony... well over $1000, though, but times have changed.
For quite some time, tape has been the highest quality medium, but that's starting to change -- the most recent AVCHD camcorders rival, and sometimes exceed, the quality of HDV tape. Now, some people will probably rant and rave about the compression being higher, and while they are correct, they're also incorrect... flash and HDD based high-def camcorders pretty much all use AVC (eg, H.264, MPEG-4 Part 10, Advanced Video Coding) rather than MPEG-2 for compression. AVC offers a 2-3x improvement in coding efficiency over MPEG-2... that means at the same visual quality, an AVC video should be 1/2 to 1/3 the size of a similar MPEG-2 video.
With that said, there are some caveats. You are right to reject DVD based camcorders.. you get about 20 minutes per 8cm disc in recording time, and that's usually at slightly lower quality than you get on flash or HDD. I'm also nervous about HDD camcorders, simply because hard drives do fail, particularly when subject to being tossed about a bit, as one does from time to time with a camcorder.
Flash was a questionable-at-best solution two years ago when I bought my last camcorder... it was too small and too expensive. Mostly that's changed, though Sony camcorders will use their proprietary Memory Stick technology, which is a bit more expensive than the industry standard SD/SDHC. But other than that, there's nothing wrong with Memory Stick.
Anyway, Videomaker magazine just rated Sony's HDR-CX7 as their choice for the best flash-based camcorder. The CX7 lists at $1200, but it's already been replaced by the CX12, which offers a larger sensor, better lens, and higher top bitrate (the bitrate effectively determines the quality of the video, all else being equal... HDV and DV camcorders use a fixed rate of 25Mb/s). This is an excellent choice, offering a top quality rate of 16Mb/s, which should rival HDV quality.
You may see AVCHD camcorders claiming "full HD"... this is due to the fact that HDV models record video at 1440x1080 rather than the full 1920x1080. It's rare to actually care much about this, but that's what they're talking about.
Another great choice is the Canon HF11, which supports SD/SDHC memory recording, bitrates up to 24Mb/s, and alternate refresh rates at 30p and 24p as well as the nomal 60i (the number is "frames per second", the "i" indicated interlaces, "p" is progressive... most TV in HD is 1080/60i, while Blu-Ray film transfers are usually 1080/24p). 30p and 24p modes also help on quality in low light, by allowing a slower shutter speed. AVCHD at 24Mb/s generally outperforms HDV in quality.. Canon was first with this on the HF11.
And I'd had to add, I might also wait, right now... Canon just announced a new flash-based model, the HF S10, at the CES show, Panasonic has the TM-300... but some of these are a bit outside your price limit, I suspect.
As for AVCHD and flash, there are some trade-offs vs. tape. Obviously, you need some memory cards, possibly more than one depending on how you shoot. I took an HDV camcorder on a two week backpacking trip and shot six 83 minute tapes.. that would have been some serious cash in memory cards, particularly in 2007. The advantage, of course, is that once you have the memory card, it's probably going to last for the life of the camera, or beyond. But you also don't have an automatic backup, as you do with tape.. you transfer this to your PC and do something with it, then erase the memory card. Of course, that transfer is at full USB 2.0 speeds, and there's no chance of transfer errors (which can happen with tape and Firewire, though they're rare if you use good tape).
Editing is also an issue... any old PC these days can edit standard definition DV video without breaking a sweat. For HDV editing (MPEG-2 at 1440x1080), you need a pretty good and fast PC. For AVCHD editing, you need one about four times faster than that. Also, since it's a new format, there are still some compatibility issues between cameras and tools, though this is starting to be resolved.
You can pretty directly take AVCHD files from such a camcorder and create AVCHD DVDs, which will play on pretty much any Blu-Ray player. DVDs obviously limit the file size to 4.7GB (single) or 8.5GB (double), but the nice thing here is that, for short videos, you can both archive your video and do so in a format that plays on a standard player.
Sony certainly makes some great camcorders... I have two HDV (tape-based high definition) camcorders, and one is a Sony... well over $1000, though, but times have changed.
For quite some time, tape has been the highest quality medium, but that's starting to change -- the most recent AVCHD camcorders rival, and sometimes exceed, the quality of HDV tape. Now, some people will probably rant and rave about the compression being higher, and while they are correct, they're also incorrect... flash and HDD based high-def camcorders pretty much all use AVC (eg, H.264, MPEG-4 Part 10, Advanced Video Coding) rather than MPEG-2 for compression. AVC offers a 2-3x improvement in coding efficiency over MPEG-2... that means at the same visual quality, an AVC video should be 1/2 to 1/3 the size of a similar MPEG-2 video.
With that said, there are some caveats. You are right to reject DVD based camcorders.. you get about 20 minutes per 8cm disc in recording time, and that's usually at slightly lower quality than you get on flash or HDD. I'm also nervous about HDD camcorders, simply because hard drives do fail, particularly when subject to being tossed about a bit, as one does from time to time with a camcorder.
Flash was a questionable-at-best solution two years ago when I bought my last camcorder... it was too small and too expensive. Mostly that's changed, though Sony camcorders will use their proprietary Memory Stick technology, which is a bit more expensive than the industry standard SD/SDHC. But other than that, there's nothing wrong with Memory Stick.
Anyway, Videomaker magazine just rated Sony's HDR-CX7 as their choice for the best flash-based camcorder. The CX7 lists at $1200, but it's already been replaced by the CX12, which offers a larger sensor, better lens, and higher top bitrate (the bitrate effectively determines the quality of the video, all else being equal... HDV and DV camcorders use a fixed rate of 25Mb/s). This is an excellent choice, offering a top quality rate of 16Mb/s, which should rival HDV quality.
You may see AVCHD camcorders claiming "full HD"... this is due to the fact that HDV models record video at 1440x1080 rather than the full 1920x1080. It's rare to actually care much about this, but that's what they're talking about.
Another great choice is the Canon HF11, which supports SD/SDHC memory recording, bitrates up to 24Mb/s, and alternate refresh rates at 30p and 24p as well as the nomal 60i (the number is "frames per second", the "i" indicated interlaces, "p" is progressive... most TV in HD is 1080/60i, while Blu-Ray film transfers are usually 1080/24p). 30p and 24p modes also help on quality in low light, by allowing a slower shutter speed. AVCHD at 24Mb/s generally outperforms HDV in quality.. Canon was first with this on the HF11.
And I'd had to add, I might also wait, right now... Canon just announced a new flash-based model, the HF S10, at the CES show, Panasonic has the TM-300... but some of these are a bit outside your price limit, I suspect.
As for AVCHD and flash, there are some trade-offs vs. tape. Obviously, you need some memory cards, possibly more than one depending on how you shoot. I took an HDV camcorder on a two week backpacking trip and shot six 83 minute tapes.. that would have been some serious cash in memory cards, particularly in 2007. The advantage, of course, is that once you have the memory card, it's probably going to last for the life of the camera, or beyond. But you also don't have an automatic backup, as you do with tape.. you transfer this to your PC and do something with it, then erase the memory card. Of course, that transfer is at full USB 2.0 speeds, and there's no chance of transfer errors (which can happen with tape and Firewire, though they're rare if you use good tape).
Editing is also an issue... any old PC these days can edit standard definition DV video without breaking a sweat. For HDV editing (MPEG-2 at 1440x1080), you need a pretty good and fast PC. For AVCHD editing, you need one about four times faster than that. Also, since it's a new format, there are still some compatibility issues between cameras and tools, though this is starting to be resolved.
You can pretty directly take AVCHD files from such a camcorder and create AVCHD DVDs, which will play on pretty much any Blu-Ray player. DVDs obviously limit the file size to 4.7GB (single) or 8.5GB (double), but the nice thing here is that, for short videos, you can both archive your video and do so in a format that plays on a standard player.
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