Inexpensive but decent video camera?

Question

I love to film things, such as vidblogs, family stuff, and occasionally my friends and I film moves for fun. Can someone suggest a video camera that would work for me, and is easy to edit the footage, etc.

xxoo- thanks.

Answer 1

I recommend getting an HV20 for ~$660+$15 shipping, new, on eBay, or ~$800 on most other websites. It shoots in HD, which, even if you can't watch HD, you can still down-rez and still have crystal clear SD video. Also, the 24p can add a more professional look to your movies as well as vlogs. This camera is about as much bang for the buck you can get without spending a ton of cash. Hope this helps!

Answer 2

"Inexpensive" means different things to different people.

Take a look at the Canon ZR800, ZR900 and ZR930. I like these because they are inexpensive and they have a mic-in jack for using external mics. They do not have manual audio control. For that, you will jump to the Canon HV20, HV30, Sony HDR-HC7 and HC9. They are 2-3 times more than the Canon ZRs listed above, but they offer a lot more features and can shoot in high definition and standard definition. The ZRs shoot standard definition only.

All camcorders listed above are miniDV tape based and if your computer has a firewire port, their video can be edited by pretty much any of the video editors out there. If your computer does not have a firewire port, they are typically easy to add. Transferring video using USB will not work.

Hard drive and flash memory camcorders are a bit more expensive than the miniDV tape based units - but their video is compressed a lot more so the video quality can suffer. Video files are copied to your computer using USB. Most video editors can edit this highly compressed MPEG2 video. In the high definition world, a compression method called AVCHD is used by many high definition ccamcorders with hard drive or flash memory storage. Some editors cannot handle all cameras - so check before you buy.

Please do not buy a DVD based camcorder. They provide the worst available video quality and the discs are a pain.

Answer 3

I think you can have a look at Nikon CoolPix S50.. It is a 7.2MP Digital Camera.. And it is not expensive, a decent deal for it is only $200.

http://www.dealstudio.com/searchdeals.ph...

Hope it helps.

Answer 4

Maybe this will help:

Which Digital Video Camera Should You Buy?

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article...

Good luck!

Answer 5

The Flip Video is super easy to use and download to your computer. I have a couple of regular cameras that take high quality video, but for ease of use they don't compare.