[AdamZuf]

hello!
i need a nice digital video camera. i want it to be reliable, have a decent image quality and have a good battery life, take stills, have ext. mic option.
i don't think i can afford more then $750, since it's not my money.

actually, i know absolutly nothing about these (i never even held one), and would like to have your opinion about other stuff i should look for.

i have a nice performing IBM laptop but it has no firewire.

oh, and i have to buy it in the next 4 days, so your fast reply is appreciated

thank you very much
adam

 

[CSMR]

I've got a basic used samsung scd77 (minidv) for just over $200 from ebay which works well for me (very occasional use) and has decent mic input, so you should do well at your price. The interface for minidv transfer is firewire in general so you will probably want a firewire PCMCIA card.
And by the way, please check out:
capital letters

 

[AdamZuf]

thanks for advice... and i know what is capitalization, i just don't care

 

[viviorunitia4]

I think sony and canon are pretty well regarded, and they should have all the features you need. Panasonic makes the GS70, a 3 ccd camcorder for around $700, so that might be worth checking out, and as CSMR already said, you will need firewire if you plan on transferring to your computer.

 

[3lusiv3]

IMHO...I would only buy Panasonic or JVC camcorders. They know how to do video well. The others are pretend. I have a Canon camcorder because I like Canon still cameras but I'm not happy with the audio side of things, so I wouldn't recommend Canon. If you gave me ANYTHING Sony I would sell it. Sorry to dismiss Sony like that, but I've had too many bad experiences with Sony to give them another chance when there are usually so many other choices.

 

[enzoferrari650]

i have the hc-30 sony handycam. Works quite nicely. Great quality. I would suggest u get the hc-40 with your money. That one should be even better and take very nice stills onto a sony memorystick duo. The camera itself is very very small. Smaller than my palm. very easy to use. It has a nice touch screen capability. Its a very cool feature that u can show off. hehe

 

[dariusf]

check out this review site http://www.camcorderinfo.com/

I have Sony TRV11 for few years and I'm very happy with it. My dad wanted to take if off me so I can get a new one but after looking around and reading some review I decided its not worth the money. Better to spend it on headphone related stuff

The image quality is great but Sony does tend to have a little over saturated colors. Also to to the cost of the tapes, I would stay with MiniDV tapes. MicroMV tapes are just way too expensive and DVD is really low quality and short recording time.

 

[AdamZuf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by enzoferrari650 i have the hc-30 sony handycam. Works quite nicely. Great quality. I would suggest u get the hc-40 with your money.

i narrowed my options down to the HC-40 or canon MVX250i, which has slightly better specs then the sony.
do you got ext. mic input in yours?