What's an excellent DIGITAL CAMCORDER for... (1 Viewer)

[Dick]

I have been on the net for days trying to find the most in-depth reviews for various Digital Camcorders and am more confused than ever by the hundreds of sound-bite-length comments and quotes. I need an inexpensive camcorder ($400-500) that is capable of porting movies (not stills) into my Sony Vaio computer via firewire so that I can edit using built-in software. The ads and reviews for camcorders I've seen sometimes mention USB, but my understanding is that this is a somewhat slower process than firefire )which is almost never mentioned although I believe a bunch of models have this capability). I will be using this unit to make relatively simply "virtual tours" for local real estate agencies, but I do need a camera that will give me good quality images both indoors (with ambient light) and outdoors. A camera that can also convert analog vhs for streaming to the computer would also be a big plus, but is not a necessity. Anyone have experience with anything that might work for me??? Thanks for any info.

 

[Heath_E]

Virtually all digital camcorders use firewire, also called IEEE 1394 or i.LINK, to transfer video to the pc. The usb is used to transfer stills and mpeg clips. I personally feel that Sony makes the best digital camcorders overall, but the ones close to your price range do not have analog inputs, which is what you would need to digitize your vhs material. One DV camcorder that will do everything you want, and is a very nice unit, is the Canon ZR70MC. I'm sure there are others that will fit the bill, but I mention this one because a friend recently purchased this model, and is very happy with it.

Check out the specs here

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I've been very happy with the Sony DCR-TV22 MiniDV camcorder that I purchased a few months ago. The price is a little higher than your budget (I paid $590). Sony does make a similar, less expensive model DCR-TV19 that should go for about $500 online. The TV19 does not have a color viewfinder (which I really like) or digital still photo capabilities (which I do not use on my TV22 anyway). From the research I did when purchasing a camcorder, these models got consistently great reviews in their price range.