recommend a camcorder

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seaflower

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I'm looking to get a digital camcorder and was wondering if anybody can give me good tips on important/essential features, or their oppinion of different brands? Want a good compromise between functionality/price, as I won't be filming too often, and probably won't need 40x zoom, etc.

Any recommendations for shops in Dublin, or online shops?

Thanks!
 
I'm not a camcorder expert, but have a Canon digital camcorder which I always found reliable. But I would recommend Pixmania for the prices - some incredibly cheap models on their site which would cost a fair bit more over here . But do a price comparison first with the likes of www.pixels.ie etc.

I've never had a complaint with Pixmania , the delivery charge of eur13 is acceptable for a 3-4 day delivery service.
 
podgerodge said:
I'm not a camcorder expert, but have a Canon digital camcorder which I always found reliable. But I would recommend Pixmania for the prices - some incredibly cheap models on their site which would cost a fair bit more over here . But do a price comparison first with the likes of www.pixels.ie etc.

I've never had a complaint with Pixmania , the delivery charge of eur13 is acceptable for a 3-4 day delivery service.
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Canon are arguably one of the best camera / camcorder makes.

[broken link removed] have good prices on their camcorders.
 
Thank you for the replies, will check them out. I am a bit wary of buying things like that online, just in case there is a problem, and the service will be very hard. But having said that, my neighbourgh bought a camcorder from powercity, which was faulty, and couln't return it!!! Thanks again:)
 
I'm still looking for a camcorder and almost decided on Canon MiniDV MV830i - any comments from anybody? Also wondering another thing - the tech spec mentions 'tapes' - and I thought digital camcorders use digital storage media?

How big tapes do I need if I want to be able to film lets say 2 hours? Do I need any special cables - e.g. for transferring the video onto my laptop? Any other required accessories?

Thanks alot for your help and sorry for all the questions - the baby is due in few weeks and I really have to order this and figure out how it works asap :)
 
seaflower said:
I'm still looking for a camcorder and almost decided on Canon MiniDV MV830i - any comments from anybody? Also wondering another thing - the tech spec mentions 'tapes' - and I thought digital camcorders use digital storage media?

How big tapes do I need if I want to be able to film lets say 2 hours? Do I need any special cables - e.g. for transferring the video onto my laptop? Any other required accessories?

Thanks alot for your help and sorry for all the questions - the baby is due in few weeks and I really have to order this and figure out how it works asap :)
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In a similar position - baby on way and needed a camcorder.

I recommend a megapixel camcorder over the 800K pixel ones e.g. in the Canon MV range. The MVX range from Canon is very good such as the MVX330i - €615 on or the (€693).

USB cable will come with it for transferring to your PC/laptop.

Check out camcorderinfo.com for good reviews. The [broken link removed] on CNET is good but some of the U.S. model numbers are different to the European ones - still good for reviews and subjective user opinions.

Re tapes, most digital camcorders still use digital video tapes, mostly Mini-DVs which are small and cheap and hold up to 60 minutes on Standard Play and 90 minutes on Long Play.

You can buy DVD camcorders but these will only record 30 minutes on Standard Play and IMHO you get better price/performance ratio still from a Mini-DV camcorder.
 
Thank you for all the help! I got my Canon MV850i digital camcorder this morning. I'm trying to test it now, and was wondering if somebody can help me about the cables.

It came with a USB cable, which seems to be for transfering still images to the computer. For transfering video to the PC it says to use a DV cable (which it seems is not included) I don't seem to have a DV input on the laptop (at least I don't have anything resembling the diagram in the manual). Does anybody know what sort of cable do I need?

Thank you!
 
seaflower said:
Thank you for all the help! I got my Canon MV850i digital camcorder this morning. I'm trying to test it now, and was wondering if somebody can help me about the cables.

It came with a USB cable, which seems to be for transfering still images to the computer. For transfering video to the PC it says to use a DV cable (which it seems is not included) I don't seem to have a DV input on the laptop (at least I don't have anything resembling the diagram in the manual). Does anybody know what sort of cable do I need?

Thank you!
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DV = IEEE1394 = Firewire

You can buy cards quite cheaply for your PC in order to add this capability.

Komplett.ie have [broken link removed] from €6.50 for 2m and [broken link removed] from €30.

I would have expected that you could transfer video over USB 2.0. However, this article semes to suggest that Firewire is better for transferring video.
 
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MonsieurBond, is there a way around it so I don't have to install a card - its my work laptop:) ? Is there a cable I can get to connect to the USB port, for example?
 
seaflower said:
MonsieurBond, is there a way around it so I don't have to install a card - its my work laptop:) ? Is there a cable I can get to connect to the USB port, for example?
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Don't think so - they are two different technologies. You can buy a PCMCIA (PC) card for €23 on [broken link removed] and plug it into the laptop when you want to use it.

I confess that I have just bought a Dell laptop and forgot to specify a Firewire port on it as I assumed I could use USB with my camcorder as well. :eek:
 
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I just saw I have a smart card reader (slot) on the laptop (Dell Latitude D600) so I guess that's where the card goes:) I presumed I'll have to install it internally.

I'm off shopping for a card and a cable now...
 
seaflower said:
I just saw I have a smart card reader (slot) on the laptop (Dell Latitude D600) so I guess that's where the card goes:) I presumed I'll have to install it internally.

I'm off shopping for a card and a cable now...
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Be careul - you might have a memory card reader for SD/MMC cards which are used in digital cameras, phones etc. to store digital pictures, music etc. Typical max capacity is 1GB.

What you want is a wide slot to take a PCMCIA card - check out the pictures on the link. Most laptops have one or two such slots.
 
seaflower, if you have Windows XP on your laptop there is a piece of software that comes with it called Movie Maker - you can use your usb connection to bring across a movie from your camcorder with this.
 
Thank you MonsieurBond and Ceist Beag, I went to Maplin last evening and got a card and a cable, so it works now!! Komplett have cheaper prices on their web site, but as I wasn't 100% sure what is it exactly I need, decided the local shop is better as I can return it afterwards if there is a problem (which is a bit more awkward with online shopping).

I think I came across a discussion/links with movie editing software before - prefer something free as I won't be editing that many movies. Does anybody know where was it?

Thanks again!
Very Happy Seaflower:)
 
seaflower said:
Thank you MonsieurBond and Ceist Beag, I went to Maplin last evening and got a card and a cable, so it works now!! Komplett have cheaper prices on their web site, but as I wasn't 100% sure what is it exactly I need, decided the local shop is better as I can return it afterwards if there is a problem (which is a bit more awkward with online shopping).

I think I came across a discussion/links with movie editing software before - prefer something free as I won't be editing that many movies. Does anybody know where was it?

Thanks again!
Very Happy Seaflower:)
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Happy camcording, Mr Spielberg. :)

(BTW It turns out that my new Dell does have a Firewire / 1394 connection. Saves me buying a card!)
 
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