The gigantic "which camera should I buy" thread!

[Kevin Shaw]

I love the FX1, but for the purpose you described a PD170 or VX2100 might be a better choice for now. The best reason to get an FX1 would be if you want to try to offer prints from video, which works a lot better than from any SD video camera. Can you rent or borrow an FX1 to see if it would work for your purposes before making a buying decision?

[Dan Euritt]

Originally Posted by Terence Murphy

To make the scenario even more taxing, I'm typically filming 300-400 one minute clips a day, and need a fast cycle time between stop and start (1 second or less at times).

think of it as a death sentence for the tape drive... been there done that.

the drag racing and surfing that i shoot typically requires long pauses between shots, and/or a bunch of those really short shots back to back.

i would get a good used camera, but do the video recording with an fs-4 in tapeless mode... put your money into the fs-4, instead of wearing out the tape drive of a brand new camera... so you'd be getting in as cheaply as possible, then run that setup for a year or two, before thinking about stepping up to an hd format... by then the technology will be more mature, and the pricing will have dropped as well.

i assume that you are doing it to sell dvd's? have you considered re-purposing it for internet use at the same time? if you have some 'net skills, there is money to be made with advertising dog-related products, and you'll never need an hd camera to do it... how are you as a webmaster?

[Tony Jones]

I've been thinking of buying the Canon XM2 .. I would just like to know if there are any other serious contenders at this price point?

[Vincent Rozenberg]

A bit more and you have a Sony FX1, with true 16:9 CCD's, superb 16:9 LCD screen, better manual control, High Def option, etc. etc. Worthwhile the bit extra dough..

[Vincent Croce]

If you're anticipating any low light situations, with a little effort you can find a Sony PD170 for about that price. Great all around camera.
Got one off EBay a couple of months ago for 2300 that had hardly been used.

[Chris Barcellos]

And a new VX 2100 may come in under that prices somewhere. But if you bump up about $ 400, you can get FX1 with superior imaging for about $3k at BH. Beware of lower price internet retailers... I've heard horror stories. PD or VX gets you superior lowlight performance, but FX1 gives you a lot more to work with in terms of picture quality in most situation.

[Tom Bolia]

Does anyone have any comments about the video cameras that record straight to DVD? Has anyone used one before that can tell me about the pros and cons???

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Hi Tom,

although I actually think you should ask your question in a new thread, I'm going to try to answer your question shortly:

I think if you're serious about video, there is no reason to go with a camera that records straight to dvd.
It's designed for people who make birthday videos and can instantly watch it with their dvd player.
But the cameras themselves aren't that good (there are no real prosumer cams who film on dvd) and it's much more a pain to edit then straight minidv.
So: mostly cons, only pro's if you are uncle Joe filming a birthday or something - with all respect.
Best regards,

[Steve Leary]

I'm looking for a smaller (handheld) MiniDV camera $1,000 or less that has the following:
S-Video In/Out
A/V In/Out
Headphone Jack
Good in Low-Light

I've read a few reviews that have led me to the Sony DCR-PC350 and the Panasonic PV-GS400. Any other recommendations?

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

I can only tell you that the GS400 is discontinued, so if you want one - and many people want one, because the new version, the gs500 seems to be not as good as the gs400 - you'll have to buy one second hand from someone from these boards or on ebay or something.

Best regards,

[Rand Blair]

We used the 350 with a wide angle lens for close up hand held shots of faces of African children in a doc a year ago. Mostly shot with XL1s, after post (FGP 4) we had wonderful results.

Rand

[Mel Abdo]

Hi, I was wondering what the BEST camera under $1500 was??
My best buy has 2 HDR-HC1's left, because they've been discontinued, and i'm still confused on what to get.
NO, I cannot stretch the budget.
I would LIKE for the camera to be BIG, not nothing like palm camcorders, I want to look professional.
I will make videos to post on the internet, and make home movies also.
I want also, nice manual capabilities, WITH a headphone and microphone jack.

Thanks!

First post here!

[Josef Heks]

if your just doing it for the net and urself, why does it have to look professional?

GS400 is small but great and very cheap

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Hi Mel,

welcome to the boards.
There are many cameras to choose from, but in your budget, they are almost all small. But that shouldn't really matter, it's what they are capable of.
Also, define 'small'?

A GL2, even a HVX200 looks like a (bigger) palmcorder to me.
Only XL models and the HD-100 from JVC look like 'bigger' camcorders.

A GS400 is a good camcorder for it's price, but it looks a bit like a palmcorder, and it's discontinued, but you could look for a used one.
You can look maybe for used models, like a VX2100, GL1,...
Unless HD is really important to you.
I think you should primarly tell us what you are planning to do with the camera.

[Boyd Ostroff]

Welcome to DVinfo Mel. This recent thread might interest you: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=65237

I don't have any experience with it, but the DVC7 which Derrick chose is a larger camera that might look "professional" and it's in your price range:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...ughType=search