Sunday, November 22, 2009

Camcorder suggestions

Ok, next up in the shiny gadget stakes is a replacement camcorder. Currently, I've got two camcorders - a JVC VHS-C model of many years vintage that's about a foot long and half as high, which hasn't been used in anger since about 2003, and a Sony TVR19E Mini DV model of about late 2003 vintage which is still used as our main camcorder.

Intrinsically there's nothing wrong with the Sony. It's relatively compact, I've got an extended battery so I can get 3 hours shooting out of it, and the picture quality aint bad. But it is still heavy if you're carting it about all day. We're off stateside at Easter to the land of the Mouse, and as we'll be on our feet for a fortnight walking around the parks I think it's time to upgrade to one of the newer HDD or flash based compact units like the Samsung F30 pictured at the top of this post. These are barely larger than a compact camera, and are very light, and can easily be slipped into a pocket.

The trouble is, I don't know which one to get. Typically I'm up to my ears in users reviews from Amazon and other sites, and have been trawling the displays in Curry's and Comet. I don't want to spend a fortune - I'm not Steven Spielberg - I want something that I can shoot basic video with, transfer it to my PC (or Mac - and that's not always straightforward looking at reviews because of the format some of these things record in) and edit it and burn the resulting output to DVD for playback on a PC or TV (for those luddites in my family that haven't embraced the digital age).

The Samsung is only about £140 which seems like real value (if it's any good), but I'm also looking at the Panasonic SDR26 units and lower end Canon Legria series.

Has anyone out there got one something like this who can give me some feedback ?

No comments: