Video Cameras

[sbkline]

The wife and I are thinking about buying a video camera this year and I no nothing about them.

when I was a kid, my parents had one of those old ones that hold on your shoulder and took a VHS tape, but I know they are much smaller now. Do the ones out now still use that little micro-cassette that I used to see at Walmart? If so, how do you play that over your VCR?

Do they make any that record onto a DVD so that you can just pop it in your DVD player at home?

 

[lilclerk]

The wife and I are thinking about buying a video camera this year and I no nothing about them.

when I was a kid, my parents had one of those old ones that hold on your shoulder and took a VHS tape, but I know they are much smaller now. Do the ones out now still use that little micro-cassette that I used to see at Walmart? If so, how do you play that over your VCR?

Do they make any that record onto a DVD so that you can just pop it in your DVD player at home?

With the micro cassettes, I would use the A/V cables to hook the camera up to my TV, and record onto a video cassette. Pretty simple.

And I really know nothing about brands of cameras, etc, but I do know that there are ones that will record right onto DVD. I'm not sure how the quality would be though.
Here's a link to Amazon with a bunch.

 

[jenjen chester]

hi yes they do make them that take dvd, i think canon make them, xx:wave:

 

[jenjen chester]

hi i was right canon do make them. the only thing is there is not alot of recording time on the disks, hope that helps.

 

[Alexx]

Go into a local store and ask about video cameras i'm sure they'll help you, also, have a look on websites etc

 

[wdwmomof3]

I asked this same question a few months ago and I got some very good advice. I will try to go back and see if I can find the link but they advised me not to get the one that recorded to dvd. I also had people at the stores to tell me the same thing. I ended up getting a Sony one that goes to the very small tapes. I can burn them to a DVD at home so it was no big deal. I love it. I took it to Disney and it did great. I'll get more info for you when I get a chance.

I just bumped the one where I asked the same question. Maybe this will help you as much as it helped me.

 

[sbkline]

I asked this same question a few months ago and I got some very good advice. I will try to go back and see if I can find the link but they advised me not to get the one that recorded to dvd. I also had people at the stores to tell me the same thing. I ended up getting a Sony one that goes to the very small tapes. I can burn them to a DVD at home so it was no big deal. I love it. I took it to Disney and it did great. I'll get more info for you when I get a chance.

I just bumped the one where I asked the same question. Maybe this will help you as much as it helped me.

I'll have to check it out. Thanks.

So how do you play yours on your TV? Can you just play it on your camcorder and plug in your audio/video plugs into your TV to make it play over your TV screen?

 

[DisneyGigi]

I'll have to check it out. Thanks.

So how do you play yours on your TV? Can you just play it on your camcorder and plug in your audio/video plugs into your TV to make it play over your TV screen?

Once you are done recording and finalize, the mini dvds can play in a regular dvd player. They have only 30 mins per disc but great quality.

 

[wdwmomof3]

I'll have to check it out. Thanks.

So how do you play yours on your TV? Can you just play it on your camcorder and plug in your audio/video plugs into your TV to make it play over your TV screen?

I use the white,red & yellow cable things and plug it into the DVD player, VCR or into the TV its self. You can put your movies onto DVD or VHS or leave them on your little tapes.

The advice that I got was wonderful so I would check it out if you have time.

 

[Deadmanwalking]

Here is a quick recap... you will have 3 option in recording media.

1. Straight to DVD... can be expensive to do you will need to finalize the DVD when you want to watch it on your TV regardless of whether its full or not. So if you just taped 5 minutes of a birthday and want to share it with the family you may end up having to just throw away that remaining 55 minutes of space (unless you hook up your camcorder which kind of defeats the purpose of shooting straight to DVD). You will also find that in order to put video on a DVD it has to be compressed (not good for editors). You will find that DVD's are a bit flimsy... scratch it real good in teh wrong place and you've lost a huge amount of memories.

2. Hard drive... big problem is compression. In order to get 7 hours on a 30 GB hard drive (like a sony) you have each hour of video compressed down to just over 4GB/hour... When I put raw video on my computer to edit it it takes over 11GB of hard drive for aound 1 hour... so right off you can see that your compressing alot of stuff when you use a hard drive. Now even if you can live with that compression you are left with one major hurdle. If you take this camera on a long trip you may run out of hard drive before you run out of things to video. The only fix would be to pack your laptop to down load to.

3. MiniDV... big issue is that its not new and sexy like the other formats. The upside is they are cheaper camera because they aren't new or sexy. You get uncompressed video (unless its a HD camera then its compressed but not as much as the hard drive or DVDs). You can pick up cheap tapes from grocery stores and wal-marts if you have to. The biggest handicap you face is having to down load the video to your computer to burn a DVD or simply hooking your camcorder up to the TV to show your videos.

Yes, it can be scary for some people to hook up a camcorder to their PC and burn a video, but with the software and relatively simple plug and play setup of most new camcorders and PCs... it isn't that hard to do anymore... its nearly idiot proof if you just follow the instructions.

 

[sbkline]

I was thinking about spending 400 bucks or so on a hard drive camcorder so that I could upload it onto my computer then burn it onto a DVD. But then I realized that maybe I could do that with a mini-DV camcorder: just play it onto the computer from the tape and burn it onto a DVD. It would save me alot of money that way.

Then I talked to my aunt on the phone who does alot of videotaping and she said she has a mini-DV and either burns it off on a DVD on her computer or uses a DVD player/recorder on her TV. So, since I was thinking that I need a new DVD player anyway, I thought instead of spending 400 dollars on a hard drive camcorder, maybe I'll spend alot less on a mini-DV, then spend the rest that I WOULD have spent, buying a new DVD player/recorder/VCR combo for my TV and kill two birds with one stone.

 

[dolbyman]

tape is the way to go ... I wouldn't buy anything else .. at least not in the next few years

 

[sbkline]

As a Walmart employee, I get a 10% discount, and every November, they give us a coupon to use to get an additional 10% off of ONE item. So I had planned to use that 20% off to get a camcorder there next month, and I saw one today for $279 that I liked.

However, I went to Sears and they had one on clearance for $143, and said it was originally marked $279. It was a Panasonic PV-GS29 with 30X zoom. So I went ahead and bought it. Our next WDW trip is in April, so I have 6 months to figure out how to use it.

Now I just have to get that new VCR/DVD player and recorder combo so I can record my videos onto DVD.

 

[dolbyman]

even better use a computer with firefire and cut/edit your videos first

 

[barkatozz]

As far as camcorders are concerned nowadays.....Sony is the way to go.

 

[dolbyman]

canon (the new HD series is woot) and panasonic play also a big role