Suggestion for buying good camcorder?

Question

I just look there are many people making vlogs nowadays. And i was gonna make one. But what kind of camcorder can i buy around $200-400. I need a good one, with a cheap price of course, but.. good specification. Though i didn't need the best one! ^_^ thank's. ur answer worth a million for me! i'm really a newbie about camcorder,. THANKS..

Answer 1

Really, this is one of the best ways to start.  Asking about it, doing research is a great way to begin.  I recently bought a JVC GD-R870, or something like that, and it turned out that the camcorder I got had absolutely NOTHING that it needed to actually record video and upload it.  So what started as a $275 investment wound up costing me another $110 before I could actually make it work.

Best advice is to check sites like Amazon or any other site that posts customer ratings and feedback and then decide.  Make sure you find out if your computer has the necessary specs and ports to upload videos too, and that the camera comes with all the equipment needed, such as USB or Firewire cable and a memory card.

Answer 2

hmm... they must have some at bestbuy for under 400$ maybe between 300-400$$

Answer 3

The BEST ones will be those cameras which:

1) store their captured video with the least amount of compression.

2) have an easy video archive process so you don't have an extra step.

3) have an external mic jack so you can connect external mics.

4) have manual audio control, exposure/iris, zoom and focus - but also can go auto while you are learning to use the camera.

When you start looking you will find miniDV tape based camcorders will meet all of these requirements. Hard drive, flash memory and DVD based camcorders cannot meet these requirements.

DO NOT BUY A DVD BASED CAMCORDER.

Starting at the low end and working our way to the mid-range:

Canon ZR950 ZR800 (no manual audio controls)

Sony DCR-HC28, HC96 (no manual audio control, but you can switch the mic gain from normal to low to do loud noises like bands without overdriving the audio auto-leveling circuit resulting in a pile of muddy audio.)

Canon HV20, HV30; Sony HDR-HC7, HD9 (have everything on the requirements list)

DO NOT BUY A DVD BASED CAMCORDER.

You should also include a firewire port addition to your computer (unless you are using a Mac - they have had firewire ports for years), firewire cable (USB will not work to transfer video from miniDV tape based camcorders - this is for all computers), high capacity rechargeable battery, sturdy carrying case and tripod on your immediate shopping list... and start saving for external mics and lighting...

If you must, look into the hard drive cameras - but they, along with the flash based cameras compress their video a LOT - which is why I cannot recommend them. In the $ range you specified, there are none that I can recommend.

DO NOT BUY A DVD BASED CAMCORDER. They are worst video quality, the discs are a pain and editing their video is awful.