Which is the best camera to buy?

Question

I want to buy a new camcorder and i can't decide what to choose.. thing is that I want to capture a high-quality video, and then edit in final cut or any other editing software.. is it good to buy miniDV (with tape) camera or Samsung VP-HMX10C.. thanks in advanced

Answer 1

Your top quality video is still probably Mini-DV or HDV. The  VP-HMX10C (SC-HMX10 in the USA) is one of the lowest prices "real" HD camcorders.. but it's not FullHD.. the resolution recorded is 1280x720/30p. However, the more recent flash-based camcorders are pretty good, nice and compact, and offer fast transfers to the PC for editing.

That Samsung is kind of cool, and while I've got nothing against Samsung (I have a 71" Samsung DLP), I think you'd get much better quality video from the somewhat more expensive Canon Vixia HF-100, if you're leaning toward flash-based camcorders. This is slightly larger than the Samsung too, but it's using the AVCHD standard, and can record full HD (1920x1080).

The real problem with Samsung is it's video format. It is using the AVC video CODEC (also known as MPEG-4 Part 10, MPEG-4 AVC, H.264, etc), which is the video format used by pretty much all HD tapeless camcorders. But the video CODEC isn't the whole format, and the Samsung seems otherwise a bit proprietary... lots of users have trouble playing the video back or editing it on a PC. I would personally stick to standards like DV, MPEG-2, HDV, or AVCHD.

There are also some complaints in reviews about the quality of the Samsung video... not so much the sharpness as inconsistent exposure.

Answer 2

No you need to buy a flip. you can get them at walmart.com or flip.com they have high resolution and it comes with software to edit cut and it doesnt need a tape!!