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HazelGirl · Mar 10, 2004, 04:03 PM

Hi. I want to get a digital camera that is also a camcorder. I want to be able to upload whatever I do via usb or firewire. I want it to be small enough for me to carry around in a bag/purse. I want it to take good quality pics and video and I want to be able to edit them. My budget is about 300 bucks

so that may limit me a bit, but we'll see.

Any suggestions?

Btw, I would use it MOSTLY as a camera, but I would like the option of camcorder as well because I plan on putting together a year long project (documenting of my time in Europe) and editing it--I think some video segment swould be a good touch(along with music and voice overs, etc...you get the idea....this would be my first project of anything like this)

Thanks.

P.S> Will likely stick it on a DVD and give it to friends, family, faculty, and grad school adcoms

zigzag · Mar 10, 2004, 11:30 PM

Can't be done for $300 as far as I know. You'll either get lousy stills or lousy video or both. Even the most expensive camcorders take only mediocre stills.

If the stills are more important to you, I'd spend $200-300 on a good still camera and an extra memory card and battery, then see if you can borrow or rent a separate camcorder.

k_munic · Mar 11, 2004, 02:58 AM

can't be done.

ALL videocams have lousy still pics, compared to still-cams.

you want a cheap combination?
i do use (and LOVE!) my sony U10 - YES, "just" 1 Mio pixels, but quality is great, long power, very low latency, very fast on, etc.pp. this is really a small camera, i have it allways in some pocket.. the quality is enough for usage in videos; have a look at epay, there are U10,U20 and U30 models on the market..
videocam: sony tv14 (european model no); no effects, even no firewire in (costs etxra over here in germany for some spooky tax reason); very good picture quality (zeiss lenses), very good power management (stamina), easy to use - works great with all apple apps (iMovie, FCE); final movies i do burn as dvd.

yeopsiber · Mar 13, 2004, 07:41 AM

[QUOTE]Originally posted by HazelGirl:
[B]Hi. I want to get a digital camera that is also a camcorder. I want to be able to upload whatever I do via usb or firewire. I want it to be small enough for me to carry around in a bag/purse. I want it to take good quality pics and video and I want to be able to edit them. My budget is about 300 bucks

so that may limit me a bit, but we'll see.

The newer (latest) crop of digicams offers VGA reolution (640 x 480) video clips at 30fps which plays well on tv sets. But you will end up in gigantic file sizes which requires large capacity flash memory cards, at least a 256MB.

But 300 bucks will only either buys you a decent digicam or 8mm video camcorder.

Amorya · Mar 16, 2004, 03:45 PM

I have a canon MV630i camcorder (cost �350) which can also do stills. The stills are 1024x768 and are acceptable for things like web use.

I also have a canon ixus. It does video of max 30 seconds. The video quality's not bad (VHS quality IMO - not as good as DVD though).

As everyone's mentioned, it's a compromise.

Amorya