I wonder if someone can give me some advice. I have just purchased my first ever digicam, a Microtek MV500 for $200 Australian and I am very disappointed. The MV500 to my mind is little more than a toy. The 12x zoom is pretty useless because the picture becomes blurred immediately you begin to use it, plus the lighting adjustments are quite annoying on auto. Sometimes there is too much light and other times not enough. Finally, on playback the quality (680x460 AVI) is not very good. Seems like a cheap copy of a video. Since this is my first ever digicam I am not sure whether these things are normal for this price range. Can anyone advise me as to what I should be looking at for a decent camera that can zoom in without extreme blurring (what's the point of having a 12x zoom if you can't use it? If I want movie quality recording do I need to buy one of the much more expensive digicams that cost about $1500 AUD? Thanks.
The product that you bought does not deserve the name camcorder... Don't go for a camcoprder that records on memory card because they compress the video to much in order to get at least a decent amount of video on a card. Go for miniDV, DVD or hard drive camcorders (best quality is still miniDV tape and if you want to edit a lot, this is still the way to go). Educate yourself by reading some reviews on www.camcorderinfo.com You'll find ou that for around $400 you can get a very decent camcorder and for a couple of hundreds more an even better one.
Thanks for that, friend. If I go for MiniDV, then I will not be able to edit digitally, right? Can I produce MPG or AVI files of good quality with one of the hard drive camcorders that you mentioned? Presently looking on www.camcorderinfo.com
Oh yes, if you have it on miniDV you can edit digitally. As a matter of fact the digital video editing world for consumers still revolves pretty much around miniDV. You only need a Firewire connection on your PC to transfer the video to your PC and you've got them in the best possible quality in AVI files. Currenty it is still easier to edit film shot with miniDV than material shot with a hard drive camcorder. I suggest you read teh articles in the basic section of the site in my sig to get going.
Ok, thanks again, Am learning fast... Just one more q if I may: If the miniDV camera has a USB port and USB driver software for Windows, does that mean I can upload DV to my PC and produce MPEG or AVI files for editing?
It may or may not be possible. Many camcorders use USB only to transfer stills captured on a memory card. Others can output the video from tape through the USB port, but it will be limited quality. Also, many capturing programs will not recognize a camcorder connected through USB. If you choose miniDV, ALWAYS use Firewire. Read this: http://www.digitalvideoclub.com/basics/transfer.php
