Which video device would you recommend ?

Question

I want to buy a new video recording device.. Anyone know what kind to buy? I dont want anything expensive. I know they were called camcorders at one time. thanks

Answer 1

What is your budget?

They are still called camcorders... Since you don't want to spend a lot of money, I would suggest one of the following:

Canon ZR800 or ZR950

Sony DCR-HC96

Panasonic PV-GS320

These are all MiniDV based camcorders. MiniDV records to DV format and this is the best available video quality.  When video is compressed, information is lost forever and results in poor quality. MiniDV tape based camcorders do not compress their video as much as other storage media.

Your computer will need a firewire port - they are easy to install if you have an available PCI slot in your desktop computer or a PCMCIA or Express slot in your laptop.

DO NOT BUY A DVD BASED CAMCORDER - The provide the worst available quality of all the internal storage methods.