What small camcorder to get?

Question

I am wanting to get a small camcorder that has decent quality and sound. Ive found a few but they seem to have both very good or very bad reviews... so if anyone has any experience with any of the cameras, please tell me what you thought of it. Here are my choices that ive narrowed it down to.. if you have any other suggestions feel free to post them but i cant go very high in the

price range thanks.

Panasonic SDR-S10

http://www.trustedreviews.com/camcorders/review/2007/06/30/Panasonic-SDR-S10-camcorder/p1

Samsung SC-X300

http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-camcorders/samsung-sc-x300-camcorder/4505-6500_7-32365174.html?tag=lst

or

Sanyo Xacti VPC-CG6

http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-camcorders/sanyo-xacti-vpc-cg6/4505-6500_7-32391845.html?tag=lst

thanks

Answer 1

arrobins321 makes some good points about the video quality perspective... you did make one comment that was not addressed - specifically, "decent sound".

There are those who say that no camcorder comes with decent built-in microphones. I think it goes a little past that and there are a number of contributing factors.

While I agree that I would not take the mics in a camcorder and expect them to behave like expensive external mics (like Sennheisers), I believe it is possible to get useful audio recording from built-in camcorder mics IF the audio source is at a normal level - that is, not too soft and not REALLY loud and the audio source - if at a normal level - is closer than about 12 feet away.

Keep in mind that most camcorders do not have manual audio level control, so they rely on an "automatic audio level/gain" circuit. It is constantly working to make low audio louder and loud audio lower.

If the audio is too soft or there is not background noise at all, you will here the audio recorded with a characteristic "whooshing" sound as the auto mic gain works to find audio.

If the audio is soft and is further than 10-12 feet away, and there is noise between the mic and the intended audio source, the built-in mic will pick up everything between the camcorder and the audio source. And if the intended audio source is intermittent, then the multiple audio sources will become the focus of the camcorder's mics.

If the audio is REALLY loud (marching bands, rock/hiphop/other loud amplified music, modified engine noise, etc...), the auto mic gain circuit will not be able to keep up making the recorded audio sound muddy and it will clip a lot.

Since miniDV tape continues to provide the best available video quality, I'll stay there and let you rely on arrobins321 reply...

The ONLY low-cost consumer camcorders with some sort of audio control - that I have been able to find - are some of the Sony DCR-HC series miniDV tape camcorders. In their menu, there is a "Normal" or "Low" (for loud audio) mic gain selection. There may be others out there, but I have not found them. The Canon ZR800 and ZR950 are low-cost and have mic-in jacks, but without manual audio control the same clipping/muddiness (and swooshing) will happen, even with an external mic.

The least expensive camcorders - of which I am aware that have full manual audio control are the Canon HV20, HV30, Sony HDR-HC7 and HC9. These all also have mic-in jacks, too.

The alternative is to use a "field recorder" like those from Marantz, M-Audio, Zoom or Fostex (among others) and use the field recorder's manual audio control - then replace the camcorder's audio with the audio from the field recorder when the video is edited.

So... if your audio is neither loud nor soft and your video subject (and hence your audio subject) is between 3-12 feet away, in "normal" light (not "low light") you'll be fine. Go outside any of these boundaries and the rules change - requiring different equipment characteristics and features.

Answer 2

The sanyo says that it has a larger CCD chip (chip that converts light/what you are recording into digital signal) So in theory it will get you a getter picture quality.  However all 3 have very small single chip setups, which isn't very impressive.  I would look for a more conventional handheld camcorder setup as well.  I have not heard great things about those strange vertical thin camcorders.  Whenever I look to but a new camcorder i always check it out here first

http://www.camcorderinfo.com