What video camera to buy?

[Allen Zagel]

Hi
Sorry, but IMO you’d be ripe for some of the eBay “scams” I just read about either here or in another forum. Be careful. You’re not going to get much (again IMO) for that money. Anything MiniDV decent is going to cost over $500 and probably in the $1000 range. You may want to look at some of the stores like Best Buy for “open stock” stuff that carries a good discount.

B&H on the internet has used stuff. Again be careful.
Allen

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[Ted Snow]

Allen is correct. If you’ll notice on the “scams” on Ebay, you might find a high dollar camera for dirt cheap…says it’s brand new. Take a look at the location heading above the listing (I think it’s in blue) that shows what catagory the listing is in. It will usually say something like “wholesale lots, jewelery, necklaces” etc. And will also usually be a ONE day listing. Definate scams to stay away from. Also, any camera in your price range is going to be a single 1/6″ CCD camera which is “OK” for shooting family picnics and such with good lighting but if you really want quality try to go for a 3 CCD camera.

[Seth Bloombaum]

$385 and “best video camera” don’t belong in the same post.

For new cameras, you’re looking at a JVC and a Samsung (sorry I don’t have model numbers). Hey, these are cameras small enough for a coat pocket, they are cheap, and they are mini-DV. That’s about all they have to recommend them. Oh, and they come with a 1-hour battery, which has to charge on the camera.

But, they do work, they do shoot video. I bought one for my son and I hope it inspires something in him.

Purchase on-sale at your local discount electronics, warehouse club, or department store. If $385 is your budget you should be able to get a cheap tripod and a spare battery too, these cams will be on sale for no more than $300.

[Johnny_defect]

Thanx guys alot. This forum has helped me so much.

Another thing, what’s the cheapest, good camera I can buy? Forget the 385 budget… what’s the best camera I can get, for the cheapest amount of money?

[Terje A. bergesen]

To me the best thing I ever did with my digital video was to upgrade to a three chip camcorder. I got the Panasonic 400, which seems out of your price range. It is really good camcorder, rivaling far more expensive offers.

If about $1200 is out of your budget I would look into the less expensive 3-chip camcorders. I don’t think anyone out there today has anything close to what Panasonic has for the low-end, look at the Panasonic PV-GS150 and 250. I seriously doubt you can get anything of a similar quality at this price.

https://www.camcorderinfo.com/ is a good source of information.

It would seem I am partial to Panasonic, which actually isn’t the case. I would much prefer a Sony HD camcorder or the Canon GL series, but they are way to pricey for me 🙂

The only advice I would above and beyond that is to stay away from, at all cost, anything that has a CD, DVD or similar storage media. The DVD camcorders store in highly compressed MPEG-2, making it more or less non-editable.

—
Terje A. Bergesen

[Ted Snow]

Very true…even a Digital 8 camera is better than a DVD based camera.

[Ralph Hajik]

Hi Johnny,

I’m thinking about purchasing the Canon ZR-100 mini DV Camcorder for $259.95 – $30.00 rebate = $229.95 from B&H Photo. That’s where I purchase a lot of my equipment. The only reason I’m buying that Canon ZR-100 is strictly for downloading my footage into Vegas6 so I don’t wear out my Canon GL2 which I already had for 2 years. I highly agree with Allen. If you want to play around, then get the 1 chip camcorder and I recommend that you save enough to get a 3CCD chip camcorder.

Ralph Hajik