Can you recommend a Good Digital Camcorder With Image Capture Capabilities?

Question

I own a Kodak Easy Share Z730 with 5.0 mega pixels and Video Capture Capabilities, I purchased it Christmas 2005 and it worked perfectly but has recently started to act up (ex: sparatically entering and leaving favorites, slow shutter speed and so fourth...) I cant find any obvious fixable issues, so I figure the purchase of a new camera is needed.

Could you recommend a brand or specific digital camera with both image and video capabilities and sufficient resolution??

It will be used regularly as my youngest daughter uses it for auditions.

Your answers are appreciated.

: )

Answer 1

Most cameras can take videos these days. However, very few can:

- take higher quality videos

- can optical zoom during videos.

Canon TX1, Sony H50, Canon S5IS, Panasonic TZ5 are all high quality digital cameras which can do optical zoom during video. The video reslution is good for most purposes.

Canon TX1 is best balance between camera and camcorder I think.

canon S5IS, sony H50, panasonic TZ5  are all better cameras that TX1, but max video resolution is lower.

TZ5 does support higher resolution, (perhaps canon S5IS also), but they dont compress that well -> so you will need 8GB card for 1 hour of extremely high quality video form a TZ5 (which is worth it perhaps).

Specific points about each:

--------------------------------------...

Canon TX1 -> best balance (video/still).

Panasonic TZ5 -> compact, better lens coverage (wide angle (28) to 280mm). [TX1 is 39 to 390mm, less facility of wide angle but more for distant zoom]

Canon S5IS -> Higher quality still camera. Less of video quality.

Sony H50 -> very versatile zoom (31 mm to 465mm). Less on video quality.