Video Camera Recommendations

[gavd]

I've got a friend who's just made the switch to Mac and is also considering getting a video camera as they've just had a little girl.

Can anyone make any recommendations on video cameras? They don't want anything top of the range but not anything cheap and nasty either.

Thanks.

 

[liketom]

sony dcr-hc 19 is cheap an cheerfull

 

[OttawaGuy]

great review site...
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/
cheers

 

[MovieCutter]

Might I recommend this

 

[liketom]

Might I recommend this

2 to 3 years and this might be affordable by all

loving the HAL light on it though

 

[rjgonzales]

Perhaps a little on the steep end, however I really like my Panasonic PV-GS500. Retail is just under a grand, but you can find one between 700 and 800 from Amazon and the like.

 

[gavd]

Thanks for the suggestions. Especially the link to engadget...
Give him a starting point.

 

[OttawaGuy]

Might I recommend this

Buy two, they're cheap!

 

[blitzkrieg79]

Perhaps a little on the steep end, however I really like my Panasonic PV-GS500. Retail is just under a grand, but you can find one between 700 and 800 from Amazon and the like.

Another vote for Panasonic PV-GS500 which costs around $700. Panasonic offers a whole series of PV-GSxxx which start at around $500. Very good 3CCD cams with Leica Dicomar lens.

http://www.6ave.com/product.jsp?x=PVGS500

 

[Danksi]

2 to 3 years and this might be affordable by all

loving the HAL light on it though

Looks like a laser.

".. you expect me to talk?" - "No Mr Bond, I expect you to die!"

 

[yoak]

When my daughter was born I got a second hand Sony PC9. They are great little cameras, and very cheap these days. I wouldn´t use it for anything else (I´m a proffesional cameraman), but perfect to bring along and delivers ok picture.
Works well with my Mac.
Think I paid the equivalent of $400

 

[sigamy]

Most of the mid-range cams by Panny, Sony and Canon will do fine. The Canons may be worse in low light (normal indoor lighting). When shooting the kids low light performance is very important. You can't always add light when the baby is taking first steps, etc.

If he can afford it, 3 CCDs will give better color than 1CCD. And larger CCD size is better. Typical consumer cams now have 1/6" CCDs. The Panny GS500 has 3 CCDs, each 1/4.7". It should take same video as GS400, which is one of the best consumer cams ever.

Look for optical image stabilization over electronic or digital. Don't worry about digital zoom, it is a waste. Also try to ignore stats on still pics--a camcorder won't match a good 3MP digi cam. Look for good optics/lens--the big 3 above all have good optics.

If he wants to edit video on a Mac or PC make sure he gets a MiniDV camera. Do not get a DVD-based camcorder or MPEG4. MiniDV only.

 

[yoak]

For this kind of shooting (small kids etc) it´s as important that the camera is small as to how good images it produces.
If it´s to big to bother to bring, it dosen´t matter how good the pic quality is,
This is the kind of camera that you want to have ready at hand.
And as previous poster said, go for MiniDV