What is a great video camera for less than $800?

Question

I want great audio, thats a KEY thing, and night-shot. nice zoom, and a Great screen and mega pixel size. so? can you guys help me out? whats a really good camera for a new filmmaker! i need to know before march... thanks!

Answer 1

Maybe you should check this one.

http://astore.amazon.com/canon-powershot...

Answer 2

You need to buy a HD hard disk camera theres a a lot of brands out there. It won't make real High definition but pretty dam good SD (normal) images. Don't go for less than HD nowadays The low end will be in your price range.

Answer 3

No camcorder has built-in great audio - for that you need an external mic AND manual audio control.

The BEST camcorders 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.

Canon ZR950, ZR800

Sony DCR-HC28, HC96

None of these has manual audio control, but the Sonys do have a mic gain "normal" and "low" for high noise environments.

The least expensive camcorders available with manual audio control and all the other attributes that make a good camcorder are the Canon HV20, HV30, Sony HDR-HC7 and HC9.