New Camcorder for Mother's Day

[Mezlo]

So I'm going to be getting a new camcorder for the wifey for Mother's Day. She has been taking videos of our 4 month old baby girl with her iphone, and where I think they look great, she talks about how cumbersome it is to manage these videos. Sooo... I'm going to get her a new HD camcorder. I think it will be a good investment since it should last a while and I'm sure we are going to have a ton of moments we are going to want to capture.

Just like with TV's and computers I'm assuming there are certain staples you need to have with a new camcorder, but I am not sure of any of them. All I'd be looking for is HD, a good zoom, and a HDMI hook up for the computer or directly to our TV. Any help you guys can provide would be greatly appreciated!

[Firewind]

Re: New Camcorder for Mother's Day

CNet seems to have some decent reviews on different cameras and some decent consumer advice on what to look for:

Camcorders: Digital video camera reviews & camcorder reviews - CNET Reviews
Best HD camcorders - CNET Reviews (The best ones seem very expensive but it should give you some idea as to where to start looking anyway)

Hopefully it should give some idea as to what kinds of cameras are out there and at the very least give you something to go on.

[Jarre]

Re: New Camcorder for Mother's Day

Decent Cameras now do HD videos and can store lots of data with the 16GB+ flash cards. One I have found great is the panasonic range and the latest model is the TZ30 Panasonic Lumix TZ30 review | T3 is a good one with 20x opticl zoom, HD video and stereo sound with 14.1mp sensors meaning you can take ace high def photos to.

[Mezlo]

Re: New Camcorder for Mother's Day

I just went to Best Buy and checked out a JVC, 16gb flash, 40x optical zoom, 3" touch screen, WIFI. The wifi seems huge. you can email it, upload, or share it via wifi, no need to connect cables, all in HD.

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[cidbahamut]

Re: New Camcorder for Mother's Day

While I'm no connoisseur of video cameras, I'd caution against getting hyped up about the wifi. It'll only be useful when you have access to a wireless network, at which point you could probably just plug the camera into your laptop and not have to worry about configuring extra stuff. It's probably not terribly secure out-of-the-box either.

[Icemage]

Re: New Camcorder for Mother's Day

Do your research and check the audio capture. A lot of camcorders have great camera lenses and then have awful acoustic capture, so you get gorgeous video with trashy sound. Even some really expensive models can have terrible microphones, so make sure you do your homework on this before you buy.

Battery life can be an issue too, so check that as well.


Icemage

[Aksannyi]

Re: New Camcorder for Mother's Day

I have no useful advice, but that's an awesome Mother's Day present.

[Mezlo]

Re: New Camcorder for Mother's Day

Do your research and check the audio capture. A lot of camcorders have great camera lenses and then have awful acoustic capture, so you get gorgeous video with trashy sound. Even some really expensive models can have terrible microphones, so make sure you do your homework on this before you buy.

Battery life can be an issue too, so check that as well.


Icemage

It is one of the only camcorders I have seen that states it captures Dolby Digital sound. Now I'm not tech savvy, and it could just be a great marketing ploy, but when I see Dolby when it comes to sound I take it's pretty damn good.

[cidbahamut]

Re: New Camcorder for Mother's Day

Sounds like marketing to me. Look up reviews on the specific camera and see what people who own it are saying.

[Icemage]

Re: New Camcorder for Mother's Day

It is one of the only camcorders I have seen that states it captures Dolby Digital sound. Now I'm not tech savvy, and it could just be a great marketing ploy, but when I see Dolby when it comes to sound I take it's pretty damn good.

I'm not talking about audio format. I'm talking about the quality of the audio. A lot of camcorders have low quality, small microphones that do a bad job of accurately capturing sound. You can have the best format in the world, but if your original capture is garbage, your final audio will just sound like faithfully reproduced garbage.


Icemage

[Mezlo]

Re: New Camcorder for Mother's Day

This is the new one i think I'm going with. It's by Canon, and obvious Canon's lenses are going to be more sharp and clear than one by JVC since lenses is what Canon specializes in. PLus, the Dolby Digital audio intake has 2 chanels, which sounds like it would be a higher quality than a camcorder with only one.

Canon VIXIA HF R40 8GB HD Flash Memory Camcorder Black 8153B001 - Best Buy

[Icemage]

Re: New Camcorder for Mother's Day

^ That's a good camera for that price. Good choice.


Icemage

[Firewind]

Re: New Camcorder for Mother's Day

I second that opinion. For a Camcorder that records in full 1080 that price seems very good.

As for Dolby, it is a form of noise reduction and sound compression technology. It is hard to describe to someone not savvy with audio recording and digital compression, but if you watch any movie from before the mid 80's the voices are slightly distorted to sound more high pitched (especially if it is a British film) and there is a slight hiss in the background. Basically what Dolby does is reduces background noise so you only record the sound you want and it also makes voices sound more natural and less "tinny" or high pitched when recorded by a microphone. Basically the tech is everywhere because it is damn useful and nobody really has come up with much better.