Camcorders

[LDG_GEAR _MONITOR]

a request for some help from all you technos !

I am looking at buying a camcorder and there seems to be loads of makes. what sort should i be looking for?

want resonable quality an fairly small size if poss an ideally less than £500. i guess i can record on the camcorder and then send it to my pc for editing. what is best then to save the finished movies onto CD?or buy a DVD recorder? or how do i get finished movie onto VHS?

i have pc as follows - 2600 athlon, 1GB ram, 120 scsi hard disc partioned in 2,30GB ide drive, cd writer,dvd reader, usb etc but know it has 1394 socket, asus a7n8x motherboard

also have dell latitude laptop which is 1ghz with 20 gb hard disc but guess that will not be much use ?

look forward to any advice !

[Engineer]

Hitachi DZ-MV350ENone of the analogue models makes it as a Best Buy. Unless you want to buy one of the cheaper camcorders on the market, or you'd prefer not to go digital, we recommend that you opt for a digital camcorder as they offer better overall picture quality.

Where possible we tested camcorders priced at £400 or less. However, in order to include a good range of models in the test, we also tried out a DVD camcorder, the Hitachi DZ-MV350E, that cost a bit more than the rest. At around £620 from independents or £594 from www.unbeatable.co.uk it was the most expensive model in our tests but did achieve the highest total test score. It performed well when it came to video image quality, autofocusing and battery life, but one drawback is that you can record at the best quality setting for only 18 minutes before having to change or turn over the disc that you're recording on. This camcorder's indoor film quality was good, as was its ability to autofocus.

Sony DCR-TRV245Considering its price, we were pleased to find that one of the cheaper digitals on test, the Sony DCR-TRV245 was a clear Best Buy, costing £380 from Argos or £284 from www.unbeatable.co.uk As with the other Best Buys, it produced above average video quality. Its image stabiliser worked well and battery life was good. It didn't pick up much operating noise through its microphone. Its still picture quality wasn't brilliant but, like the Hitachi, it was better than the rest on test.

Canon MV600iThe Canon MV600i produced good image quality and scored well overall, but was let down its battery life. It costs £500 from Jessops or £385 from www.unbeatable.co.uk. The picture quality was above average, and its sound quality was very good, too, when used with an external mic. It's not good for taking stills.

A little out dated Nov 2003 but hope it helps

[LDG_GEAR _MONITOR]

well i guess no one can help ! i'd of thought with the thousands of ppruners out there someone would do there own movie editing and be able to offer advise !

oh well..........

[spannersatcx]

Best quality is is Digital Video, DV.

What camera, can't say as the one I have is a few years old now, I would suggest magazine reports/reviews narrow it down to features/costs then go and have a look/play with one.

To get video onto a pc you need the appropriate cables/connectors, assuming that the camera comes with a firewire connector you will need a firewire connector on your pc.

Once you get the video onto the pc you need to edit it with software, I use pinnacle studio 8, 9 is the latest version, there are others by ulead, adobe and many more.

I assume your operating system is XP, if not, if it's 98 then there is a file limitation size, 2gb I think, about 15mins of capture video I think. XP as long as the hard drive format is ntfs then there is no file size limits, as far as I'm aware, except the actual size of the HDD. I would suggest do a certain amount at a time say 15-20mins, as rendering can take a while.

Once you have edited the footage you have a choice, where do you want to pit it? If you want to put it onto tape then the camera needs to be DV in as well as out, that means you can record the edited video back onto the camera and then the camera to vhs. NOTE not all cameras are DV in/out, check before buying.

If you want to put it onto DVD, you can use the necessary software to record to DVD. Most recorders come with some sort of software for burning, I personally use Stomp Record now max, or nero, you'll also find that some of the editing suites have the ability to burn to disk as well.

Haven't been here for a while but check this site out http://www.mikeshaw.co.uk/editing.htm

Hope that helps :ok: