Shopping for a Camcorder

[wossa]

and am one lazy mo fu.

checked a few out a best buy. Not wanting to spend more than $600 for the camera. I know accesories ( fire wire, case, extra batterys etc) will run up that price.

Narrow down right now to a Sony DCR-TRV240 and a JVC GRDVL120U Sony DIgi 8 460m pixels. $599 JVC mini DV 680m pixels.$499 at Best Buy

leaning towards the JVC.

any suggestions on where to shop on line? Camera preference? I need to have it in hand by next Wednesday.

thanks for al your help and smart (ass) comments

 

[Y2Buddy]

I have a Sony TRV- something. 360 zoom Digital-8. Couldn't be happier with it except for a couple of things. Don't get a Hi-8 whatever you do. I've had mine for a couple of years, so I'm missing some new features. I wish I had the camera for the 4mm tapes and not the 8mm ones. I also wish it had a place for a smart card to be used as a digital camera as well. It does have a shutter button that freezes the frame. Don't get all mixed up in the zoom though. It'll say 12x or 16x or 20x optical. The 180x, 300x, etc is just inhanced and you lose picture quality. It's cool to play with when you first get it, but you don't really use it.

I can hook mine up with a single wire and edit movies on the computer, and it's really fun. The new Sony's I have read now come standard with the web cam software feature to use on the internet like you use those cheap cameras for, but it's upto 640x480 pixals. Make sure you get that feature too.

One more thing, I've had mine a longtime, and the price for the same model has not come down. So buy the one you want. The worst thing is to have a $600 camera you're not happy with. Get the one with the features you want and be happy.

Here's a still shot off the computer

 

[BigMark]

Let me preface this by saying I'm a HUGE Sony fan, so I'm a little biased.


GET THE JVC!!!!!

Mini DV of Dig 8 every time and twice on Sunday. Y@'s right, as far as zoom goes, just rely on the optical number. the digital numbers are insane, but over 280 or so, you can't hold it still enough to use anyway. Sony's nightshot is a neat feature, but not nearly as effective or practical as they make it seem on the sales floor.

As far as the digital still camera feature goes, it's crap. If you want a digital still camera, buy one. The integrated ones on the camcorders pretty much suck, and you'll pay more for a good one than you can buy a seperate one for.

I've sold camcorders at Sears for about the last 18 months (until I left about 2 months ago), so feel free to message me if you have any more questions.

Oh, one more thing, buying online... What I would do is look everywhere you can online to find the lowest price, print it out, then take it to the store. Best Buy and Sears both (I believe Circuit City too) will match that price, and you don't have to wait for it to come in the mail.

 

[Y2Buddy]

Hey thanks Big Mark, I feel a lot better about my camera not having the memory stick feature, but JVC huh? Oh well. Once you've commited, you can't jump ship. Mini DV is the 4mm tapes, right? Yea, I got mine right before those came out. The Hi-8 pretty much sucked and I traded for the Digital-8 like a year later.

Definately buy online. Yahoo Shopping is great. Plus shipping is cheaper than tax, but beware of the gray market stuff. Big ordeal over a Canon Rebel/Canon EOS, AMEX took care of it though. Some companies have these European models, so just be sure it's EXACTLY what you saw in the store.


$439.00 GR-DVL120 Mini DV
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/citywidedigital/jvcgrmindvca.html

 

[BigMark]

If you really want to go balls to the wall, Hitachi's got a camcorder that records on a 2.5" DVD-RW. IMHO, that's the way to go.

 

[Y2Buddy]

Originally posted by BigMark
If you really want to go balls to the wall, Hitachi's got a camcorder that records on a 2.5" DVD-RW. IMHO, that's the way to go.

How much does that run? That would be cool. The regular DVD-RW hold about 60-90 mins, how much do those discs hold? Hitachi makes awesome big screen TV's. I just had my mirror cleaned, guns aligned, etc, I was in Circut City looking at thoses HDTV's, and I was like man my picture looks great too!

 

[BigMark]

I haven't seen the DVD-RW cameras in stores yet, just saw the ad in Sound & Vision. the capacity will depend on hte density of the disc, but I can imagine you'd get as much on one of those as you would on mini-dv or dig 8, but twice the resolution.

 

[wossa]

Appreciate all the info guys. Hey BigMark - if you are a huge Sony fan then why did you say get the JVC - is it because of the mini DV?

This is a new nodel for JVC - the guy at Best Buy almost reccommended it over the Sony but then started hedging. It was smaller and fit in the hand better.

Best Buy said the same thing about still - good pc quality but not print quality - buy a still camera if thats what you want. also said the same stuff about the digital zoom -

I dn't want to get the mother of all cameras just because I will neveruse half the addons that make it "the best".

just want a camera with good picture, good zoom, easy to download to PC or transfer to tape if needed. good low light picture, good battery life and easy to use - that is the biggies.

again thanks for the help - Mark I may PM you later with more questions

 

[BigMark]

I said the JVC because it was cheaper for what I feel is a much better format. A mini DV Sony will set you back twice as much as the price on that JVC, and except for the very high end of Sony's line, JVC is just as good.

 

[PantherMills]

I took this with the stick on my Sony DCR-TRV730 NTSC. I had to reduce the quality to load it here. For a digital 8 video camera, it takes great digital pics.