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Posted by Mr. Tapeguy on 11/03/06 13:19
slugbug wrote:
> About 3 years ago, my mother in law gave us a Canon Hi-8 camcorder
> that she rarely used. With it, I was able to capture lots of videos of
> my son (now 3) and daughter (now 2). Unfortunately, it apears that
> several pixels in the middle of the optical sensor have gone bad,
> because now every recording I make has an area that is missing any sort
> of signal. It is a Canon ES2000.
>
> For some time, I've thought about upgrading to a new camcorder, but
> price kept me from it. We simply never had $500 or more saved up.
> Right now I do have $300, so I was thinking of looking around for
> anything that might work well for $300 or less. Here is where I was
> looking:
>
> http://www.pricewatch.com/1/220/1777-1.htm
>
> I would appreciate it greatly if any of you could give me feedback on
> which of these I might want to avoid like the plague, and which might
> be best. I will primarily be using the camcorder initially to convert
> old 8mm films (home movies from the 1950's through around 1980) over
> onto my PC, and of course to record new home videos of my kids.
>
> There are 3 things that I want:
>
> 1) ability to add a 3rd party battery cheaply (at least 5 amp hours, so
> I can record several hours worth of video per battery)
>
> 2) good quality capture, hopefully better than what my old Hi-8
> camcorder would have done
>
> 3) firewire support - to make it easy to transfer things to my PC
>
> Any hints or advice you might be able to give will be appreciated
> greatly. Otherwise, I might end up going with the cheapest model in
> the list.
The process is a simple one, similar to shopping for anything else.
You'll likely want to go with mini dv as it is so widely used. A
digital 8 camcorder will give you backward compatibility but your
options will be severely limited.
Although there are now several name-brand cameras under $300, keep in
mind that their features will be limited compared to more expensive
units. I'm not saying you need to spend a grand but you might look a
little above $300 and go up, just to compare the differences. Look at
the features such as zoon and image stabilization and see what you
like.
The digital format should have firewire on every unit making your
capture easy and higher quality and most of these models should have
batteries available from Power2000 or Lenmar. That of course, has to
figure inot your budget too.
Shameless plug dept: we can order most of these although we don't
stock them. If you are in a hurry, keep us in mind for the best deal
on tape and other items.
Good luck,
Craig
http://www.pro-tape.com
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