Help a cheapskate out

[osidak]

Ok now that I have your attention

Want to buy a MiniDV camcorder. Primary reason is to film my son growing up ect with some additional duties as in car camera. Do not really care about still photos as I have a pretty good digital still camera.

Would like to have good low light performance, good image stabilization and also have fire wire capability so I can down load to a PC.

I am on a budget of $300 to $800.

What are the best choices out there in that range?

Thanks

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Can't help you much other than that I read some of the low-end Canon DVCams pick up a lot of camera noise through the microphone. Tape motor, etc. Caveat emptor.

[osidak]

Yeah I was set on the Canon ZR70 but between the motor noise and poor low light I backed away from it.

Hope my price range and expectations do not put me out of the market. My wife wants me to get one (as I do) but I don't want to go crazy on price either.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

I think Thom (widebody911) was in the market, too. You two might want to put your heads together on it....

[Adam]

I can vouch for the JVC GR-range. I've got a GR-DV47 (or something similar ) that is pretty basic nowadays, but the quality is good and there is almost zero camera noise. It's got a 10x optical zoom and a 200x digital zoom. It works pretty well in the dark, too. I bought it for a vacation to Hawaii and used it on a few drive days, but that's about it. Funny how I had all the best intentions of using it, but it's sat in it's bag for months on end.



I don't know what the latest version of this unit is called, but I'm sure that it's at least as good as my old (2 yrs old) MiniDV cam. If you can get JVCs in America, then they're worth a look.

[osidak]

Ok so the people in the know what are your thoughts on the JVC GR-D90 and what is the real difference between it and the D30 / 70 / 90 besides cost.

[RickM]

Here's the link that Cowtown started with the same question. I think he and a couple others went for the Sony TR38. I have had very good luck with Sony camcorders. Good Luck.

Video camera advice

[Adam]

I'm certainly not sure, but I think the JVC 90 has a built-in, high-res digital still camera, with flash. They store their photos on a Panasonic SD card, which mounts in behind the LCD screen. They're pretty cool, but if you've already got a nice still camera, just get the lower model.

I've got two nice digital still cameras (both 2.0+ megapixel, so low-tech now... ), so I just got the camera with the "snapshot" function, which saves 3 seconds of still image for later retrieval from the video via your PC.

Whatever camera you buy, make sure it's got a Firewire port. It makes transfer to your PC for home editing easy and fast!

[Bill Douglas]

Sony's reliability and quality make their range well worth looking at.

Hey Omar, that muffler of yours is working really well on the car thanks

[osidak]

I am going back to the drawing board. Really don't want to blow the budget but looks like I am going to go higher in my price range to get the low light ability

Glad to hear the muffler is working out. Did it make it undamaged?

[Bill Douglas]

It was perfect thanks, and I got one of the stainless steel welding guys here at work to do a work of art in refitting the tip. They were facinated by the type of steel it is.

[osidak]

Didn't realize it was stainless or for that matter it is special steel, go figure. Tried to make sure it was packed well enough to make the trip safely but you never know.

How far is NZ from NC anyway?

[Bill Douglas]

The welder reconed it had some stainless in the steel or it would have rusted to some degree in it's ??? years of life. He welded it with high grade stainless steel wire in a tig welder (mig or tig). I guess NZ is 6k or more miles from NC. The muffler is fractionly noiser than my old one and I like it