A friend of mine is looking to purchase a camcorder (his first), from all the reviews I have read looks to be miniDV is the best way to go He is not very computer illiterate so mainly be just watching on the TV and the odd computer transfer/edit burn to DVD ect. Conditions of use would be general, both indoor and outdoor and wishes to do some nice close-ups of wildlife. I have read many reviews on a bunch of dif models and they all seem to have good and bad points and just very mix reviews.. At least in the range I have been looking which was about $500-700 Some key features looking for is -good optical range, at least 20x -can take digital stills -good in lowlight -wide screen mode -good quality video -battery life -ease of use No specific budget but would like to try to keep it around $600 Canadian if possible, of course will try to go bit higher if means that much of a dif in quility. Also a question, about how long would it take to transfer say 60 min of video from the DVtape to the computer? Any help be appriciated as I have never owned a camcorder before but would like to see him get the best thats suited for him. Thanks
Pick a number of models an read the reviews on http://www.camcorderinfo.com Don't expect too much from stills taken with a camcorder, but if you absolutely want to use it for that, go for a 3CCD model. Low light operation is indeed a very important feature and this will probably turn out the real discriminator when you do some research. I would not pay much attention to the 16:9 (see one of the other recent threads). YTou should be able to get a good camcorder for the $500-$700 that you mention. In the top of that price range, a camcorder that I can recommned is the Panasonic GS250. You might be able to pick it up at around $700. If you want to spend less, check out the Canon Elura 90 It takes 60 minutes to transfer a 60 minutes tape to PC... simple as that.
great thanks.. and very nice site will check up on this WS issue.. he has a WS TV so figured best to shoot in that mode.
