I am looking to buy a hybrid camcorder this weekend. Any suggestions on good quality for under $400?

Question

I want to buy a descent hybrid camcorder this weekend. I want one that has excellent picture/sound quality, and one that stays in focus, and will also take still shots. Does anyone have any advise they can share with me?

Thanks!!!

Answer 1

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/JVC-Hybri...

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Sony-DVD-...

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Hitachi-H...

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/JVC-Everi...

theres a couple to start with...

Answer 2

Yes I just bought Sony handy-cam at $350. Its very good with a lot of desirable feature. It produces high quality pictures with excellent sound production. In short, visit http://digitalcameras.fateback.com for details. I bought mine from http://digitalcameras.fateback.com/Camco...

Answer 3

I don't quite know what you mean by "hybrid camcorder"... but for $400, I presume you are looking at a miniDV tape based camcorder. MiniDV (digital video) provides the best available video quality because DV does not compress the video as much as MPEG2 used by most internal hard drive and flash memory based camcorders. The worst camcorder video quality is captured by DVD based camcorders which burn to .VOB files..

Entry level for a real camcorder is $300 (Canon ZR800, Canon ZR950). Add a high capacity rechargeable battery, tripod and sturdy case, and you are probably over $400.

Built-in mics are notoriously bad. For them to work properly they need to be close to the sound source. An external mic is strongly recommended. The Canon ZR800, Canon ZR950 each have a mic-in jack. You can use wire or wireless mics.

Camcorders in this price range do not have manual audio control. Loud noises (amplified music,) will cause the audio to be very muddy and not useable. This cannot be fixed. Some Sonys (DCR-HC28, HC96) have a switch in the menu that allows for "Normal" mic level or "Low" mic level to be used in loud environments. Neither has a mic-in jack, but an adapter is available from BH Photo.

A video camcorder does not take great stills... just as a still camera does not take great video - but they both typically have the capability...

You want good optical zoom - disable digital zoom when you get the camera - it is useless.

Please do not buy a DVD based camcorder. Go to the camcorders forum at forums.cnet.com and check the "sticky"... there are too many people frustrated with the DVD based camcorders.

If you go with miniDV tape, you computer will need a firewire port (IEEE1394, i.Link are all the same thing). They are generally easy to install - Macintoshes have had them for many years. USB is used for transferring stills from the memory card.

If you go with a hard drive based camcorder, you will transfer video with USB - but remember, MPEG2 compresses a lot - so reduced video quality when compare to miniDV tape.

All camcorders in this price range have auto focus, some sort of image stability, auto exposure and other features...