Hello I'm from Canada, looking to purchase good quality camcorder my budget is maximum CAD $700.00 Not sure if I should get with internal HD, or mini dvd How are the ones with mini tapes? Is video quality as good as mini dvd or hdd. Forget about high definition as they start at $900.00 & over. I am not a professional & will be using this to video family get togethers, parties, kids at home & some sporting events. I think Sony is probably the most reliable brand & that's the brand I believe I'll be looking at but not sure which models I should look at. Don't want something with lots if bells & whistles which I'll never use or would never figure out what they are used for at the same token I don't want something that will look like it's worth $50.00 Let me know what I should be looking for & thank you.
Lots of models to choose from. I can't recommend a single model since that's so subjective so I'll explain the pros and cons DVD cams Pro: Very convenient if you don't want to fool around with capturing/edit/authoring software and DVD burners. Con: Not much manual control over process and mini-DVD's can get expensive. HD cams Pro: Very convenient in that you don't need multiple tapes. Probably the format of the future. Con: You need to transfer to computer to capture, etc. mini DV Pro: Has the most lossless codec which means has the highest "quality". Con: You need to change tapes and it's a dying format. Get a camcorder that has the highest recording pixels. You need to check the specs. The higher the recording pixels, the better your picture will be. Given your budget, most HDD cams are out. Personally, I'd choose a good mini-DV camera since I don't mind the whole transferring process. If you have no idea about making DVD's on your computer and don't necessarily care, then the DVD cams may be your best bet.
Transfer can be meant as capture or file transfer. I'm not too sure about the HDD cams since I haven't tried one yet. You'll still need to render, edit, re-encode, etc.
I've looked at specs of few models but I see nothing mentioned of "recording pixels". Is there anything special I should be looking for to know this?
Here's an example of recording pixels, taken from the Sonystyle website for DCR-HC48: Number of Pixels (maximum, still image recording): Gross Pixels: Approx 1070K Effective Pixels of Moving Pictures in 16:9: Approx. 670K Effective Pixels of Moving Pictures in 4:3: Approx. 690K Effective Pixels of Still Images in 16:9: Approx. 750K Effective Pixels of Still Images in 4:3: Approx. 1000K You want to look at effective pixels and not gross.
