Hi, we're two UK students going on a gap year travelling round the world for almost 6 months and want a digital camcorder, but have no idea what to buy!! Firstly, we have a budget of around £350, but this is flexible and can be more. we need a camcorder that can easily transfer data to PC, as it will be used mainly on the Round the World trip. We will be needing to upload photos to our website somehow via cyber cafes or hostel computers: Are there any camcorders that do not require software to connect to a computer (I do not know if hostel computers allow software to be installed) ? We also am unsure of which sort of memory to look at - Memory Stick ones, mini DVDs, DVD-RWs etc??>??? Due to the length of our trip we would need some large capacity memory...?? What do we do?! Also, we know that many camcorders are not very good at taking good quality photos (in mega pixels), but are there any brands or makes that are particularly good as well as with the film size? We will probably take a digital camera as well so this is just optional!! WE WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE ANY HELP ANYONE CAN GIVE US ON THIS?! WE'RE REALLY STUCK HERE!!! THANKS A LOT X
For your purpose a minDV camcorder is absolute the best choice. If you chooe for miniDVD you end up with a stack of those and they are much too vulnerable to carry around for a long time in a backback. If you choose for hard drive, you will risk that the hard drive will be full some time and where are you going to dump that many 30 Gigs or more of data? If you also want to use it for stills, choose a miniDV camcorder that records the pictures on a memory card and that has a USB connection to tranfer the pictures (not the video). They don't require a driver (at least not under XP) to transfer the pictures adn will be recognized as an external hard drive when connected. But, I would not choose a camcorder to make the stills but buy a separate camera for that, because they do offer better quality. To research the various models check the reviews on www.camcorderinfo.com Have a nice trip...
