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camcorders?
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 2:22 pm
by sillymom
We have been thinking of purchasing a camcorder for our trip in July. We have never owned one ,and all the people we talk to that have one say they used it when they first got one and then it was forgot about. Hubby being the man he is wants the top notch model ,high def. blah blah blah. Total cost about $1,200 . My question is for those of you that have one. Do you use it? Am I just throwing money away? Please tell me your thoughts. Thanks
Re: camcorders?
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 2:36 pm
by snorkeler525
sillymom wrote:We have been thinking of purchasing a camcorder for our trip in July. We have never owned one ,and all the people we talk to that have one say they used it when they first got one and then it was forgot about. Hubby being the man he is wants the top notch model ,high def. blah blah blah. Total cost about $1,200 . My question is for those of you that have one. Do you use it? Am I just throwing money away? Please tell me your thoughts. Thanks
Why not get a nice camera that also takes video? We're quite happy with the ones we get with our Canon G9 and Powershot SD700. My son enjoys his camcorder but I haven't used one in years.
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 2:39 pm
by liamsaunt
We have one. It is a canon hd recorder. To be completely honest, we have used it on vacation ONCE. We always bring it with us, and we never use it! We do like watching the (one!) St. John video that we made with it, but I definitely would not say it is an essential piece of equipment--for us, anway.
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 2:41 pm
by augie
I got tired of seeing my vacations through a viewfinder.
I like to take a lot of stills and let my memory/imagination fill in the blanks...
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 2:57 pm
by Ksea
I received a JVC - lower end camcorder for Christmas. It is very small and lightweight which I love. It records to a hard drive. I will most likely use it on STJ but do not want to spend a lot of time behind the camera as another poster mentioned. So, I got a mini tri pod so I could let the thing go on its own. Making the keepsake DVD is the challenge for me. I will need help with that for sure!
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 3:07 pm
by CariBert
Honestly, the biggest problem with a cam corder is the amount of time you have (or don't have) to spend with it to get that DVD of your vacation. Not only do you have to set it up, shoot whatever it is you want to shoot, then go home, transfer it to your computer, bring it into some editing software, add music, then save it as a project then make your DVD, etc, etc. All of that takes a lot of time.
I know, they don't tell you that when you go out to buy one, but ask anyone who uses a recorder how much time is spent to get a final product.
Of course, if all you want to do is set the cam corder on "record" and let it go, then just hook it up to your TV when you get home and watch what you recorded, then it would be fine. I prefer to edit and add music and them make DVD's to give to all my friends and relatives Bwahahahahahahaha.....I just love to rub it in....Bwahahahahahahahaha..
JMHO,
-Bert
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 3:13 pm
by DELETED
DELETED
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 5:22 pm
by RickG
Camcorders are work. I got the Canon Elura 100. It works fine. I would go with an inexpensive standard def model unless you decide to get hard core. All of the standard software works well with the miniDV format. Some of the HD versions are proprietary and do not work well except with the vendors software. Sony is notorious.
We brought the camcorder on the last two trips, but not the most recent. It got in the way of fun.
Cheers, RickG
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 5:40 pm
by Steve S
Look at the Xacti's by Sanyo. They call them digital media cameras. Everything stores on a flash card and the whole thing fits in your pocket. There is even an underwater version.
http://us.sanyo.com/entertainment/cameracorder/
There are both regular and HD models. My wife uses ours as here regular digital camera. Sony and Samsung also make similar models along with some cheaper second and third tier companies. Buy one with optical zoom to avoid disappointment.
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 5:43 pm
by 17th Hole
I bought the Canon HG10 which is the 40GB high def camcorder. I really like it. Bought it to replace an aging MiniDV tape camcorder that wasn't going to survive another trip. I find I have to force myself to use it. Most times I wish I had another person along to film my wife and I on our trips, because it always ends up me taping her. Which is probably better viewing anyway
I try to imagine a storyline in my head for my vacation and video record to fit that story. It makes it easier to edit when I get home rather than a bunch of disconnected clips.
We don't really use it that much overall. It's nice for special events and such, plus we have little kids so it's nice to get video of them. But for the most part we record and forget about it, and rarely watch the videos. 10 years from now it'll be fun to look back though.