MiniDV or DVD Camcorders
 

Hi all camcorder/technology gurus,

I am planning to spend some money for a camcorder. Will use it for family recordings and vacation recordings.

After a brief net search I am a bit confused which type of camcorder to purchase. The newly DVD camcorders or the MiniDVs.

Would appreciate your comments on this issue and as well as a brand opinion, too.


Rgds,

Guclu

MiniDV records in DV-AVI, its not compressed and gives the best quality. You can then copy to a PC and save in a variety of compressed formats, including MPEG2 if you wish, whilst keeping the original. See here. DVD records in MPEG2, its not bad, but once its been compressed you can never get the original quality back.

I would go for a mini DV as well. Apart from being much more flexible, they are a fair bit cheaper too.

I went into Jessops for a 50 p cleaning cloth and glimpsed a hand written sign offering a JVC DR70 for £199. Needless to say, it was a pricey trip into Jessops that day.

The studio softwware that is bundled for your PC is ok, but there are some cheap and very capable studio editing packages for PC especially. All in all, a very easy device to live with.


Conan

Latest issue of Which? magazine recommends the mini-DV format simply for ease of editing on a PC. I've been using it for years with my now aging Sony PC100, and the results are excellent.

As an aside, for editing I now use Magix Movies on CD & DVD, which is a combined editing suite and DVD/CD burning software. Courtesy of the well-known emporium CP World (sic), it was wrongly priced at a penny under £15 (should have been £40), so of course they had to sell it to me at that price! BARGAIN. Never complain about them again.

Tip. When buying anything in these megastores, always root through all the boxes in the rack. Invariably you will find one at the wrong (lower) price, left over from some special offer.

Just seen an advert for a JVC Hard disk camera. Might be worth a look.

CBA