video camera - what to look for?

[avlena]

Graf & I want to buy a video camera for our trip to S. Africa in November. Any suggestions on what to look for, or recommendations? We don't have a ton of cash to blow on this (I'd rather spend the money on our trip!), so it doesn't need to have tons of bells & whistles, but still decent and useful.

TIA!

[dougadam]

I think you may have posted this in the wrong area.

[avlena]

I think you may have posted this in the wrong area.

probably, but it didn't seem to fit the other areas either.

GAM, you're welcome to move it if it's better suited to somewhere else.

[Cheesypuff]

most people post this sort of stuff in the hardware forum.

anywho...my suggestion would be anything canon. They have never done me wrong.

[Got Apex Moderator]

most people post this sort of stuff in the hardware forum.

Good suggestion!
- GAM

[zero2dash]

1. Don't waste your money on a DVD camcorder; the DVDs only hold 30 minutes of footage (vs 60 mins in SP mode on a MiniDV cassette)
2. Be sure to get one with a firewire port so you can always transfer the video to your computer (and burn it to cd/dvd if you want)
3. The ones that take still photos usually require a memory card of sorts and usually the quality isn't that great (my experience is that they capture at 640x480 which obviously isn't suitable for anything but email)
4. You'd probably be well off buying an extended warranty on it because of how many things can go wrong with them (being dropped, getting wet) as well as the fact that they have a lot of moving parts

You should be able to get a decent one for around $350 and a really nice one around $450-$500 (we paid $499 for our Sony DCR-HC32 a little over a year ago and I think it was another $100 on a 3yr service plan at Best Buy). Anything above that is more than likely too flashy for the higher price IMO.

Snippet off of Consumer Reports:

Best values in digital tape:

Sony DCR-HC21 , $360
Sony DCR-TRV280 , $290
Canon Elura 80 , $400
Canon ZR100 , $285


These MiniDV Canons are easy to use, have very good picture quality and an excellent image stabilizer and autofocus, but audio quality was only fair. The Canon Elura 80 has good low-light picture quality. It's also relatively light but harder to hold and operate than other models. The less-expensive Canon ZR100 lacks still-image capture. The CR Best Buy MiniDV Sony DCR-HC21 weighs just a pound and is among the lowest-priced digital camcorders we tested. Although very good overall, its sound quality was only good; that may not matter much for recording speech, but you may notice it with music. The D8 Sony DCR-TRV280, a CR Best Buy, offers more features and better image stabilization--though it has mediocre sound quality. JVC also has some high-scoring, low-priced models, however Sony has been the most reliable brand among digital camcorders.

[kimchicowboy]

yeah. i think the canon ZR series were supposed to be real good bang for the buck.