I want to buy a Sony HD Harddrive camcorder. Price range is anything uo to $1000.?

Question

The price can be higher if need be.

It would be nice if the camcorder worked well in not-so-great lighting conditions, but this is not a requirement. Also, does anyone know any websites about camcorders that could help me choose, besides CNET? I have been researching this whole camcorder thing, but I can't find exactly what I'm looking for. Part of the problem is a lot of reviews are outdated(circa 05-06). Part of the problem is I don't know what specifications/features make a camcorder good or not.

Answer 1

he's right about the camcorder to get.....take a look at quixtar.com thats where i go for everything.... if you want to buy, i 'll give you the discount code that members get so that you can get a little discound on it  :)

Ami

Answer 2

What makes a good camcorder:

1) Least amount of compression of the video when stored.

2) Mic-In jack.

3) Ability to do auto or manual functions: Zoom, Focus, exposure (iris), Shutter.

4) At least 10x optical zoom (digital zoom should never be used so it does not matter).

When the imaging chips are all about the same size and you should be using a tripod or monopod or other physical stability device so it does not matter if you have optical or electronic stabilization, and you know that the built-in mics are always bad... and

Nice to haves:

LANC port.

Ability to accept wide-angle and tele lenses...

When you boil this down, you will end up with one of the following in your price range:

Canon HV20 or HV30

Sony HDR-HC7 or HC9

You will not get an internal hard drive based camcorder that uses AVCHD to severely compress the video (which results in reduced video quality). You will not get a camcorder that has only an extra step for archiving the video (as opposed to miniDV tape - which IS the archive). You will not get a camcorder that might not be compatible with your video editor - because not all video editors support all camcorders providing AVCHD. On the other hand, if a video editor says it supports HDV, it will support ANY miniDV tape based camcorder that provides HDV and transfers using firewire (IEEE1394; i.Link - all the same thing)....