I'm going overseas for a bit in 3 months and I am keen to video events. I am no Billy Walsh so I'd like to keep the price to 500-1k. I have been using The Google a bit for information however I am not well informed on the technical side of things.
I do not plan to do a lot of editing, it'll mostly just be used for record + playback (wouldn't mind the option available but) - I am taking my laptop with me for the few months and I wouldn't mind having a muck-around with footage.

Any advice/recommendations appreciated. Brand,dvd/minidv/hdd etc. Cheers.

I would avoid the DVD. Sure the disks are cheap, but DVD as a recording format blows. Basically get the camera with the biggest CCD and Lens Barrel diameter you can afford and you can't go wrong. I find Panasonic often have cameras that compare to other brand cameras worth over a thousand dollars more. Mini DV is definitly reliable, I've never used a HDD, but it might be annoying if you run out of space and can't just put another tape in.

the point in the hdd is that you never run out of space (new ones atleast).

you'll run out of batteries first. you can also swap out the hd in some models.

i've got an jvc hd and its rad. tiny enough to keep in your pocket but records to dvd quality.

last edited by nF at 00:10:58 27/Sep/07

what model nF? My bro is going to the US in a few weeks and is also looking at a JVC HDD one to get duty free....

The main point is you're taking your laptop with you, so archiving your recordings from hd before you sleep shouldn't be a problem at all. Just make sure you have enough space for a few days recording.

I do not plan to do a lot of editing, it'll mostly just be used for record + playback

This depends more on your computer/software than the actual camera itself. I'd say most if not all new cameras would have at least USB2.0 connections if not FireWire. Does your laptop have firewire?

I have a Panasonic DV I think and as a comparison to my boss's dv cam (forget the brand, I think it was sony), mine seems to handle high speed much better. When recording some v8 super cars going around the track his had a lot of jerking to the picture like the shutter speed wasn't fast enough, whereas mine was smooth as silk fresh out of a silk worms arse. So as far as brands go, I likes me some Panasonic.

i've got an jvc hd and its rad. tiny enough to keep in your pocket but records to dvd quality.

If it's an HD camera, and it records to DVD quality methinks there's misleading advertising afoot. HD should be better than DVD quality.

edit: haha ok my bad yeah I thought he meant high-def.

last edited by whoop at 19:18:13 27/Sep/07

it records to mpeg2 at 8mbit/s, hence dvd quality. what the f*** are you talking about?

I think he meant HD = Hard Drive / I think he meant HD = High Definition

what a retard

Well if anyone's interested Mini DV is much better quality than Mpeg2/DVD, which probably won't be the cheap finishing format of choice anymore in a couple years. So if you're concerned about quality at all, I wouldn't use something that records in mpegs. Mini DV is technically better quality than HDTV cameras too, despite being lower resolution, there isn't as much compression.

Someone needs to make a camera where the lens assembly, imaging device, compression circuitry, tape transport, i/o array, eyepiece, and lcd are all seperate devices that interlock so you can just put together the f***ing camera you want, and then swap out like the tape transport for a flash drive when that's invented etc...

last edited by Idol at 09:39:57 27/Sep/07

Cause companies are always about making the longevity of their devices better arent they.

I recently got a canon DC210, I knew mini-dv was better quality but I wanted the convenience of straight to dvd, the quality is pretty decent I reckon.

Paid $4 for rw dvd's probably cheaper around.

Someone needs to make a camera where the lens assembly, imaging device, compression circuitry, tape transport, i/o array, eyepiece, and lcd are all seperate devices that interlock so you can just put together the f***ing camera you want, and then swap out like the tape transport for a flash drive when that's invented etc...

They do
http://www.red.com
but they're not as cheap as a handycam.

+1 Panasonic MiniDV.

Mini DV is technically better quality than HDTV cameras too, despite being lower resolution, there isn't as much compression.

Uh. No.

HDV MPEG-2 TS is compressed data, but is superior in pretty much all facets compared to regular standard def DV25 data. Once upon a time, the native HDV transport stream was tough to edit...about three years ago. Nowadays a decent contemporary machine laughs at it. HDV fails at audio compression, and capturing fast moving motion with its bitrate. But on the other hand, it has greater colour/luma sampling and a higher resolution to work with than DV25.


Onto the topic, for pure simplicity and no-frills you can always try one of those JVC Everios as mentioned - records MPEG-2 muxed with AC-3 2.0 audio. So basically you can quickly transfer it to DVD without reencoding the data.

If you want to be fancy and make a full blown edit of your trip, complete with tacky transitions, then you should consider a DV25 (what people here are calling Mini DV) camera.

They do
http://www.red.com
but they're not as cheap as a handycam.

Ah. Silly old Red. Making countless videographers out there in the world think that they're 2K experts all of a sudden.

As for a rockin camera, check out the Grass Valley Infinity DMC-1000, or the Viper. :D

last edited by Creepy at 08:54:57 28/Sep/07

Have you managed to come to any conclusions yet ctd?

I too was looking at getting a Vid recorder on a similar budget.

Uh. No.

HDV MPEG-2 TS is compressed data, but is superior in pretty much all facets compared to regular standard def DV25 data.

Uh Yes. Not only is HDTV more compressed than MiniDV, but is also more prone to severe dropouts, and any scenes with high amount of motion will suffer much more noticable artifacts than standard def MiniDV.

Think about it. Same tape. Same duration. One has a higher resolution. How can it have the same quality? Even the concept of MPEG's interframe compression means you are losing more data than the standard AVI.

Have you managed to come to any conclusions yet ctd?

Yes, turns out my mate is going to take a recent-ish sony minidv camera