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Superchicken · Jun 22, 2005, 03:38 PM

Hey all, I'm thinking after I get my G5 I am probably going to get a lovely camcorder to go along with it. If Fujifilm made a camcorder I'd probably get that since I love my finepix... but I think that needs to be replaced too haha... anyway, I've been pretty set on getting a Cannon camcorder cause I tend to like what I see by them. I'm borrowing a Panasonic from someone at church currently and I HATE the thing... it's a piece of crap, and makes no sense half the time. I also wanna steer away from Sony because... I"m pretty sure they're Satan in electronics... anyone got any other suggestions? My Sister's JVC died in my care and I have no idea what happened to it (I swear it was working one minute then not the next...) so I'm leery of that brand too...

Any good stories? Bad?

Railroader · Jun 22, 2005, 03:42 PM

We have had a Canon ZR10 for a few years and have had no problems with it so far. It works seemlessly with iMovie. I burn a DVD every month or so from the footage we record (mostly our daughter).

When I buy another camcorder it will be a Canon.

mitchell_pgh · Jun 22, 2005, 03:55 PM

Once, I would have said Sony hands down, now Canon seems to be better...

iMOTOR · Jun 22, 2005, 03:57 PM

I'd say image quality is the weak point of my Canon ZR45, they're very reliable though, and as Kilbey said, they work seamlessly with mac.

zerostar · Jun 22, 2005, 04:49 PM

I have a Canon ZR85 for home and a Sony PD170 for work, both are great!

Railroader · Jun 22, 2005, 07:25 PM

Originally Posted by iMOTOR

I'd say image quality is the weak point of my Canon ZR45, they're very reliable though, and as Kilbey said, they work seamlessly with mac.

Image quality is only bad in low light on our Canon. I good light or outdoors the picture quality is excellent. The sound quality is very good too.

insha · Jun 23, 2005, 11:39 AM

I use to have the JVC DVP... somthing, MiniDV camcorder. It was bad in low light but had good picture quality otherwise.

Now I have a Sony Handycam PC55 MiniDV and so far I am happy with it. The only thing I don't like about this camcorder (true for most compact MiniDV) is that the low quality sucks (also not having a viewfinder, only LCD, but I'm getting use to not having a viewfinder).

I only wish that iMovie can pull the DV stream in one go rather than pulling it in real time (unless this is already possible and I don't know about it).

zerostar · Jun 23, 2005, 12:36 PM

Originally Posted by insha

I only wish that iMovie can pull the DV stream in one go rather than pulling it in real time (unless this is already possible and I don't know about it).

I don't understand what you mean? in DV you need to pull your footage in real time, you can't import at 2x or anything like that.

cjrivera · Jun 23, 2005, 01:02 PM

I don't know about the newer Sony's, but I have a SONY DCR VX-2000 and it works great, especially in low light. The colors are sharp and the picture is amazing.

If you can find one cheap, it would be a great option.

Mithras · Jun 23, 2005, 01:35 PM

Originally Posted by zerostar

I don't understand what you mean? in DV you need to pull your footage in real time, you can't import at 2x or anything like that.

Oh really? I didn't know that (don't have a video camera). That sucks though!

JoshuaZ · Jun 23, 2005, 02:46 PM

From what I've read Sony still has the best camera when it comes to low light levels. I plan on buying one here in a couple of weeks.

insha · Jun 23, 2005, 03:13 PM

Originally Posted by zerostar

I don't understand what you mean? in DV you need to pull your footage in real time, you can't import at 2x or anything like that.

What I mean is that there is no conversion going on between your camcorder and the computer. The DV stream that is being read, is being saved in the same format as it is on the DV tape.

Real time capturing (or importing) of video off of the camcorder is expected for non digital tapes; such as 8mm, VHS-C, etc.; because the computer has to convert these to digital format and save it on the HD. This is not the case when using DV, the whole reason being that camcorder has already done the coversion to a standard format (the DV format).

I know you can do this on the PC if you have the Razor video capturing cards that basically pull the DV off of the camera and dump it on the computer in one go, not in real time.

This is my understanding of it and I might be mistaken; but capturing DV in real time does not make much sense to me.

Railroader · Jun 23, 2005, 03:27 PM

Anyone have any experience with the cameras that record directly to DVD?

I don't like the fact that some use special 3 inch discs, I am only looking at the units that use 5 inch standard DVDRs.

Also, how difficult is it to get the footage off the DVDs and into iMovie or FC?

OwlBoy · Jun 23, 2005, 03:31 PM

Originally Posted by Railroader

Anyone have any experience with the cameras that record directly to DVD?

I don't like the fact that some use special 3 inch discs, I am only looking at the units that use 5 inch standard DVDRs.

Also, how difficult is it to get the footage off the DVDs and into iMovie or FC?

into iMovie? Prolly hard. FCP prolly a bit more easy, but still gonna be a pain.

-Owl

FulcrumPilot · Jun 23, 2005, 03:39 PM

Save your money!