I want to buy a camcoder.?

Question

I don't want to do anything fancy with it. I don't even care to use an edit feature. I have a DVD burner but it's not attached to my computer. Not sure if it connects so that I could burn from my computer. I'm looking at the Sony Handycam DCR-HC52. I don't understand how it records to mini-dvds. It also has removable media. I'm totally lost with this. The last camcorder I had took the small tapes. HELP!! I want to spend under 300.00.

Answer 1

The Sony DCR-HC52 was introduced in 2008. It is a basic consumer camcorder that uses miniDV tape on which to record digital video in DV format. There are different types of "small tapes", but miniDV is the most current. Digtal 8 used "small tapes, too, but that format has fallen out of favor. There are several analog "small tape" formats including Video8, Hi8 and VHS-C.

Back to miniDV tape camcorders. ALL miniDV tape camcorders have a DV port. This is also called Firewire, IEEE1394a and i.Link depending on the manufacturer of the camcorder. Using a firewire cable (not USB) you connect the DV port to the firewire port of your computer if you want to transfer video to edit in MovieMaker (Windows) or iMovieHD (Macintosh).

Then you can export the finished project to the DVD burner connected to your computer - if you have one.

If you choose not to edit, there are "DVD recorders" that look like DVD players, but they can also take video and make DVDs. They can connect using the (analog) AV cables that came with the camcorder, or by using a firewire cable similar to the one you can connect with to your computer... of course, we are assuming your computer has a firewire port... Most Macs do, many Windows machines do not, but they can be added pretty easily (depending on the computer).

The DCR-HC52 does not use miniDVDs as the storage format. DVD based camcorders are not recommended because editing the video in a computer can be a challenge. If you never ever neve plan on editing that footage, the DVD based camcorders are just "ok". The discs only record 20 minutes of video and they can be a challenge

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7594_102-0.h...

In your price range, the Canon ZR800, 900 and 930 make the cut because they have a mic-in jack... both the Sony HDR-HC52 and 62 do not have a mic-in jack - but they do have SuperNightShot plus (an infrared emitter for shooting monochromatic video in zero light). The HC62 has a bigger imaging chip (helps with low light).