What camcorders do you recommend under $300?

Question

which ones are light weight?

which brand works well with mac and microsoft?

i was looking at this camera and was wondering if any one had any comments or problems with it?

Canon - MiniDV Digital Camcorder - Silver

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8718612&productCategoryId=abcat0403005&type=product&tab=1&id=1200702767093#productdetail

Answer 1

The Canon ZR900 you selected would be great.

Be aware that miniDV tape based camcorders transfer video to a computer using Firewire. This should not be an issue for the Macintosh because they have had a firewire 400 port as standard for nearly 10 years (the only exception is the new Mac Air).

Manu Windows computers do not have a firewire/1394a/i.Link/DV port (though some do). If it does not, they are generally easy to add of the computer has an available PCI slot (desktp/tower) or PCMCIA slot - and they are inexpensive.

http://shop2.frys.com/search?cat=-47194&...

The Express slot additions for certain laptops are easy to add, too - but they are a bit pricey.

The Canon ZR800, 900 and 930 are the least expensive camcorders with a mic-in jack... the downside is they do not have manual audio control, so if you are planning to record loud audio (bands), it is likely the auto-mic gain circuit will get overdriven resulting in clipping - and muddy audio. In a very low audio recording, the auto-mic gain will listen for audio resulting in a characteristic "shooshing" sound... In a "normal" audio environment, the auto-mic gain is just fine.

The least expensive camcorders with manual audio control to eliminate the above problem are the Canon HV20, HV30, Sony HDR-HC7 and HC9 - but these are outside your budget.

Answer 2

You can't go wrong with a basic miniDV camcorder like this one.  It will be compatible with almost any editing software (mac or pc).

The link you provided has a customer comment page with three comments and they are favorable.