Video Camera Advice

[antifish225]

Hey - need to get a new video camera, it has been 8+ years since I have been shoping for one and did a quick search and saw that there are ALLOT of options (Hard Drives, DVD drives, etc) - I know VERY LITTLE and am looking for a mid/upper end camera that:

- Is easy to use
- Is easy to watch/transfer the videos
- Can take a hald decent digital still picture as well (maybe dreaming here?, don't know)

Any advice or recos would be highly apprecaited - THANKS - AF

[CrazyEyez]

I bought one a few months back so i did a little research. The basics on the different formats:

miniDV: These look like miniature vhs tapes. Still probably the most available format, and cheapest. Supposedly the best quality. Downside is that the tapes deteriorate over time, so you have to replace them.

mini DVD: This is becoming very popular. Supposedly not quite as good quality as miniDV, but there are varying prices for various sized optical sensors or whatever. So you can basically choose to pay more for better quality. You can use RW discs with no deterioration. You can pop them straight into your dvd player. Discs only hold 20 min per side.

hard drive: Tons of storage space. Significantly more expensive. If you want HD capability, it's going to be hard drive based and expensive.

All formats are very easily transferred to your PC for storage/editing.

FWIW I have this. I've been very happy with it. I don't know if it fits your bill, though. It's the base level sony mini dvd. I have never used the still photo option, but the reslution is quite low for those (640x280). (Note that the video resolution and the still image resolution are going to be different no matter the model, I think.)It's very easy to use, and I'm satisfied with the video quality. I had planned to exchange it for the next model up, which has higher video resolution, if I wasn't satisfied, but I didn't feel the need.

[antifish225]

Thanks for the education!

[kyleb]

I have a Canon ZR500 (miniDV) for basic shooting of baseball mechanics. It works rather well.