What camcorder do you have and why do you rec. it?

[MMEand1]

I am looking for a camcorder and want to know what is the going brand. I ahve tried to look up reviews, but am just more confused. So, my question is, what camcorder do you have and why would you rec it? Is there a particular one that you would stay away from and why? Is there a camcorder that you wished you had bought instead of the one you have? What about add-ons? Anything I should know like get a bigger battery or more tapes/dvd's? Anything helps as I am getting close to my deployment date and want to video the kids before I leave.
THANKS!
Mariah P.

[Happy 2B mommy]

I've been researching this myself, and while I haven't made my final decision, I'm willing to share what I've learned.

Right now there are 3 different types of technology used in camcorders, Mini DV (compress, digital tapes); Mini DVD (camera records directly to a small dvd disk, which most, but not all DVD players and computers can read); and Direct to Hard Drive (computer will store footage and you can burn a regular DVD). Features vary depending on what you are willing to spend. I have a friend who makes his living recording/ filming/ doing sound for theaters and this was his advice to me:

Mini DVs, while an older technology, are going to give you by far the best picture, but be prepared to spend at $400-$500.00 for just a camera if you want something decent. There are cheaper cameras, but the quality is quite poor. Recommendations are Panasonic 300/320 and Sony DCR96. Panasonic has 3 small chips, which gives excellent color, but has poor low light (indoor lighting) capabilities. The Panasonics also have optical image stablization. The Sony has 1 larger chip and therefore takes much better indoor and low light pictures, but some think the color isn't true and some dislike the controls/menu on the LCD screen. The Sony has a steady cam feature, which is pretty good, but not as good as the Panasonic optical stablization. There will be extra expenses for some software to burn the taped vidoe to DVDs. The Mini DVs are much easier to edit/create a movie than the Hard Drives or the Mini DVDs. The other advantage is that the tapes can be archeived and last forever without any decomposition to the tape, so your footage should last a lifetime or two, whereas there is some concern with the longevity of DVDs and mini DVDs.

My friend did not recommend mini dvds mostly because the technology is still fairly new and therefore quirky. The big concern with these is that there is a risk of the mini DVDs becoming unreadable, although at this point no one knows when the mini DVDs start to decompose. The big advantage is that if you aren't terribly computer saavy, or are just short on time, these are great to point, shoot, finialize disk, done. Not a lot of edit options, but that might not matter to you. A very popular Mini DVD is the Sony 108. Most amatures are very happy with it.

I know nothing about the Direct Hard Drives as most of those cameras are out of my price range. Good sites for learning more about camcorders are camcorderinfo.com and easycamcorders.com. Lots of reviews and forums.

From my recent research it appears that all manufacturers have done away with on board/included extras like mics, lights and decent batteries in the entry level/mid level price range. Too bad. You may not need the extra mic and light, but you'll definitely need to upgrade your battery.

One thing my friend strongly recommended was, regardless of the type of camcorder you get, do go with a manufacturer like Sony, Panasonic, Canon or JVC, with the Sony and Panasonics being his favorites for overall quality and features. Stay away from other brands.

Hope this helps a little. And best of luck to you. I can't imagine how hard it must be to leave your little ones.

[Gena]

We have a Canon DC20 mini-DVD camcorder and I love it.

We bought ours about 2 years ago when Hubby was going to be away from us for several months due to a job chance and he wanted videos of our little guy. We went with the mini-DVD format because at the time we did not have a home computer that could burn DVDs and we wanted something Hubby could use in his portable DVD player. The mini discs worked great for us. I could record DS and mail the disc to Hubby. The only downside is that the discs only hold about 30 minutes of video, so you are recording something longer than that you will need to change discs. For our purposes, it wasn’t a problem. But if you plan to record longer events, this might not be the best media for you.

I now have a laptop that burns DVDs and our camcorder works great with it. I can hook the camera up to the computer and download the video or I can put the mini disc in the DVD drive. I can combine videos from several mini discs and burn a full size disc (and make copies for the grandparents). Mini DVDs come as either one time use or re-recordable. Before we had the new computer we used the one time ones. Now we have several of the rewritable ones and they seem to be lasting very well.

Once we decided on the mini-DVD format we went to few stores and tried out the different brands/models. We liked the Sony and the Canon best and we’ve had great products from them in the past. We went with the Canon because we could get more features for the price.
Hope that helps. Thank you for serving our country and I wish you and your family the best.