What's the best video camcorder for travelling?

Question

What is the best camcorder (hd, dvd,mini-dvd, all those formats) to use for travelling. Backpacking kinda stuff. Nothing over $1,000 really. I just want to be able to record what I want and edit it into a movie style thing later. Like a doco. I want really good picture quality and long battery life. Also I guess it would be handy if I had some easy way of storing the video.. on a removable disk or something maybe?

Any Tech Geeks out there??

Answer 1

I would go with something that records to a built in hard drive.  Since you'll be traveling, you don't want to juggle DVDs or mini DV tapes.

HD is optional, depends on how good you want the movie style thing to be later!  You'll pay a lot more for it so this is your biggest decision.

If you are going on a long trip, make sure that your hard drive is big enough to handle all of the shots.  Especially if you go with HD, those videos take up a lot of space.

You can get a decent JVC for well under your budget, but if you have the extra $$, check out Canon or Sony.

Once you know which type of camcorder you want, check out this site. They'll look around to make sure you get the best deal.

www.shoppingdudes.com

Good luck!

Answer 2

I wouldn't consider myself a geek really (self-esteem, you know.... hehe), but here goes:

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MiniDV camcorders are best. No question. Its competitors include mini DVD, Hard Drive, flash memory, etc. Flash Memory is horrible quality (like filp cameras), so let's eliminate that.

Looking at miniDVD: ok quality, though not as good as miniDV, especially in HD. Also very convenient. My major complaint is that miniDVD is a pain to edit. If you have any desire to edit, like for a documentary, avoid miniDVD. There are very few programs available for miniDVD editing, and none of them are good. The only one I know of is Ulead Video Studio.

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Hard Drive: Decent quality (still not as good as miniDV). Several options for editing (though not nearly as many as miniDV), Sony Vegas, Final Cut Express, Pinnacle Studio to name a few.

the bad? Hard Drive= limited capacity=bad, especially for traveling. Not as good quality as miniDV. All the pro editing programs don't work with it. No practical means of data archiving (you have to capture your footage to computer, then delete from the camcorder to shoot more)

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MiniDV

Easiest to edit. Best quality in HD (HD miniDV is called HDV) because it compresses the least. Easy to archive footage on cheap miniDV cassettes. Works with any program (from Windows Movie Maker to Avid Media Composer). btw: 90% of prosumer cameras are miniDV. None are Hard Drive or miniDVD.

Now, assuming you want a miniDV camcorder (at least I hope you do), I recommend the Canon HV30 for about $780. It's HD too! Excellent picture quality. Stunning color saturation. Excellent automatic mode (good for point and shooters) It also has a mic input for external mics (cuz the onboard mics are never good) It's the only camera under $2,000 I'd ever sincerely recommend. I've used it many times (though I don't own one) and the only thing I don't like is that it lacks decent manual controls(they are very annoying to use, I tend to stay in auto mode). But you can only get good manual controls on a pro camera, so that's not too bad. It also has a 24p mode, which makes your digital videos look like film, which is a real nice feature for filmmakers (but for vacation footage, it's best to stick with 30fps).

btw; the battery is decent but not too impressive. For that matter, no camera will come with a super-long life battery. You can buy additional batteries though...

So, I hope that helps. Best of luck to you!!!!