Camcorders

[irishbunny]

My birthday is coming up and I'm probably going to get a camcorder for it. Does anyone know any decent, cheap camcorders? I wouldn't be able to spend all that much on it. I'm looking for one that has good sound, a nice clear picture and possibly HD and file type is kind of important too cause I do quite a few youtube videos. Right now I just use my camera

Thanks!

 

[irishbunny]

Bump

 

[missyscove]

I don't know how serious you're looking to get.

For something pretty simple, someone gave our family one of those flip video cameras and we really like it.

 

[irishbunny]

Well I'd be spending only about €160 so about $210

 

[Luvr of Wabbits and Polar Bears]

Moved to Camera Area. I'm sure you'll get more responses here.

 

[Little Bay Poo]

We recently bought the Kodak Zi8 pocket camcorder, which has HD video capability up to 1080p. It cost $179 but has recently gone down in price to about $155. This camcorder is alright for the money, as long as you are shooting outdoors or in good lighting. It does shoot very clear pictures in natural light.

There are a few things I don't like about the camcorder.

1. There is no auto focus. You can only focus at landscape or macro mode. There is a range in between these distances that will always be out of focus, so you have to avoid filming objects in that range. Bunnies often fall into this blurry range.
2. There is no white balance setting, so you have to trust that the camcorder's auto white balance will adjust properly. It does fine outdoors or with sunlight coming through the window, but not so well in incandescent lighting and horribly with compact fluorescent lighting.
3. In low light situations, the picture quality does NOT look HD. This camcorder has an option to film 720p at 60 frames per second, but in low light will automatically adjust down to 30 frames per second. Therefore, you must film in good lighting as much as possible (probably true of any camera).

Lastly, (nothing to do with the camera), my computer cannot process HD videos. So, before you buy an HD camcorder, make sure you have a relatively new computer that can handle the video. My friend's computer which he built for $500 back in January 2010 processes and edits HD video just fine.