Camcorders

Hey fellow photographers/videographers,

I'm in the market for camcorder, and I thought I'd poll the members here. Any suggestions? Should stick to HD camcorders only? FWIW, this camcorder will spend most of it's time shooting my son, not on the bike.

thanks.

88bmwJeff said:

FWIW, this camcorder will spend most of it's time shooting my son, not on the bike. .

Click to expand...

I was told to stick to dv tape for shooting from onboard a bike, as it's more resilliant to knocks and vibrations. But as you aren't looking for that as a factor, then just get something with ccd and whatever your budget suggests is best for the outlay.

If this is your first venture into video my suggestion is to pick up a basic SD (Standard Def) Sony or Canon MiniDV camcorder that will record in 16:9. Most of the other bells and whistles you pay extra for on higher priced models are seldom used and most of your effects will be done in your computer when you edit.

A nice thing about tape vs. memory based capture, is when you fill up a tape just pop in another. Tapes are cheap and available most everywhere.

HDV (HiDef) camcorders are nice, but you may need more computer power to edit and store data.

Also consider your editing software. If you are a mac, then iMovie is a great place to start and you already have it. If you're a PC, then Adobe Premier Elements could work for you.