New Camcorder

[headcrab]

My school is looking to buy a new camcorder. We are looking for one that records to something other than magnetic tapes or miniDVDs. (I've had enough of those little buggers.) The administration doesn't want to spend more than about $600 on this. Any recommendations?
Thanks.

[icewolf08]

While there are plenty of cameras that record to solid state media (SDHC and such) that are in your price range, most are not worth it, great for shooting home movies that no one will watch or stuff for the web, but not the best quality. Why don't you want to shoot to tape? The general trend in the film and TV world is that people are very hesitant to give up tape as the primary recording medium. Generally you will find that you get better quality all around from build to image with a camera that shoots to tape than one of the cheap cameras that shoot to flash media. That is unless you wanna blow some big bucks for a Panasonic P2.

What are you using the camera for?

[rwhealey]

My brother has a Cannon HV20 (I believe the current model is the HV40) and is very happy with it.

It is, however, miniDV tape, which isn't too much of a hassle.

[ruinexplorer]

I second Alex's opinions on your camera selection in your price range. The MiniDV format should suit you well. It transfers nicely to computers for editing purposes and the tapes are readily available.

[SHARYNF]

It typically (at least on the HD side of things) comes down to HDV vs AVCHD and at the lower end data rates of the consumer units, AVCHD really is not up to the HDV level of quality. If you just want an archive, probably ok. The real issue is going forward what devices are going to be able to playback the various formats.

The Pain with the tape based system is that IF you need to record a long program, you are stuck with changing tape.

I use a split system where I use a variety of Cameras, leaving the tape out and record to a Panasonis DMR EH55 hard drive system (for SD work) for HD a BlackMagic card in a Computer is probably the best solution these days

Sharyn

[headcrab]

Administration recently told me what they wanted. I was mistaken in thinking it was to record various shows. They want to use it to record teachers during lessons of no more than 1 hour each. The recording media doesn't really matter now, but they want to be able to easily transfer the video to a computer.

[SHARYNF]

In the case of easy transfer to a computer here are a few things to think about

Typically the DV or HDV camcorders use firewire for transfer, and in my experience this works well especially if you are using a USB external drive on the PC. For ease of moving files around and video editing there is a lot to be said about having the files/project on an external drive

A number of the non tape solutions are based on AVCHD, and use USB to transfer the files to the computer. A case could be made that performing the transfer and the drive access over USB might have a performance hit.

I would NOT recommend going with one of the mini DVD based camcorders, as from my experience the quality is not that great, BUT a case can be made that the ability to play the recording in a dvd player is an advantage.

I also would say that what folks say they "only need it for" is usually more a reflection of what they are thinking of AT THE MOMENT and rarely what they are likely to use it for in the future.

when I last looked at the various options my recommendation was the
Canon VIXIA HV40. We have used a variety of these and the earlier HV20/30 and have been quite happy. The main short coming might be the 10x optical zoom but other than that for the price (700 or so) IMO it is a good compromise

Anyway just a suggestion

Sharyn