whats the ideal camcorder? advise wanted

[heart-of-wessex]

Hello all,

It appears i have lost my camcorder and if i cant find it soon then ill just get another one. I dont mind as i could do with a new one but my footage is on mini DVD discs but i dont know if i should get another dvd one, as mine was an hatachi one and while it booted up quick, it spent forever saying 'disc access' as it loaded up the data..not good if you have a HST approaching at full belt, yoy end up missing it. I would have left it on but it drains batteries too.
Also id like one that picks up sound well when window leaning or one that has a microphone jack.

Does anyone hace any ideas or tips please?


Regards,

James.

 

[londonmidland]

Hello all,

It appears i have lost my camcorder and if i cant find it soon then ill just get another one. I dont mind as i could do with a new one but my footage is on mini DVD discs but i dont know if i should get another dvd one, as mine was an hatachi one and while it booted up quick, it spent forever saying 'disc access' as it loaded up the data..not good if you have a HST approaching at full belt, yoy end up missing it. I would have left it on but it drains batteries too.
Also id like one that picks up sound well when window leaning or one that has a microphone jack.

Does anyone hace any ideas or tips please?


Regards,

James.

Hi, I have a JVC Everio GZ-HM300, it boots up in about 6 seconds and the battery life is good as well. Unfortunately, it does not have a jack for an external microphone. Take a look at my videos, www.youtube.com/THAMESLINK319 , see what you think!

 

[TRAINALEX100]

I use a Toshiba H30 which is full HD and only costs around £140 its only a compact camcorder but works really well and has a SD card slot

 

[richw]

Hi, I have a JVC Everio GZ-HM300, it boots up in about 6 seconds and the battery life is good as well. Unfortunately, it does not have a jack for an external microphone. Take a look at my videos, www.youtube.com/THAMESLINK319 , see what you think!

I have also this jvc one, and find it a good camcorder, highly recommended from me!

 

[Teaboy1]

Currently using a CANON HFS100 records onto SD card and it too fires-up in some 5 seconds.... provides you use an OEM battery ....... if its an aftermarket battery, mine asks you if you wish to continue to record and use the alien battery ....... which wastes another 5-7 seconds !!
You will find that "any" camcorder that uses solid-state memory has a much superior battery life simply because there are virtually no moving parts that require a motor and hence battery power. The down side is you need a spare battery but these are so much smaller than olden days stuff but they usually last 90 minutes in theory .... !!

What ever you do choose (depends an budget) but where possible then opt for a HD camera, so much better!

 

[eMeS]

I've been using a variety of camcorders over the last few months, and I've now realised that although they all use Mini DV tape, their response to varying light levels e.g. when a freight train is being filmed, is different. With my one HDV camera, a Sony HC5e, it pays to have it on manual exposure, so that the background brightness stays constant; and probably best to use manual focus so that it doesn't try hunting when it can't find good focus as a Pendolino whizzes past.

My older camcorders don't seem to be in such a hurry to try and re-optimise in this respect, and leaving them on Full Auto is normally acceptable.

(I think the HC5e is my only CMOS camera - the others are CCD or 3CCD. I can generate the rolling shutter artefacts if I try, but normally it's OK.)

All of them suffer from a relatively slow start-up and being tape based, tend to turn the tape drive off after 5 minutes idleness - whatever settings I've made.

If I try using an external microphone close to 25KV wires, I record hum; and if I'm using a tripod, I can feel a tingling if I have it sited it in some parts of the central platform at Wolverton, but not others. (And I'm wearing rubber soled shoes...)