Hi there,
I am out looking for a camcorder and I am completely new to videography. So I need a good camcorder to start with that I will not need to replace in the next 3-4 years.
I am going to use it:
1) For traveling, outdoors, mountains, etc.
2) Home videos of my family
Because of (1) I need something that is light and compact and does not eat batteries to fast (there will be times when I will be in the bush without any electricity for a few days at least). That's why I am leaning more towards a flash memory based model (no moving parts, light, small).
On the other hand I have a long experience with photography and knowing myself I think a very basic (point and shoot) model is not for me. Pretty soon I will need some better manual control. Also I have read that the best possible quality at the moment is the MiniDV (no compression).
For various reasons I don't want to go for DVD or HDD based models. Also I don't really need high-definition. As long as the quality of the picture is good (sharp, stable, good dynamic range, good color) I don't need those extra pixels that come with HD.
So I am a little-bit confused and torn between a few requirements:
- Good quality
- Small and light
- Easy to start with but allowing some manual control
- Not too limited in terms of input/output
I'd appreciate if you can recommend a good balance between those ;-)
Right now I have set my eyes on Canon-HV20 and Panasonic HDC-SD5. The Canon seems a pretty good deal but it seems a bit bigger than I wanted. Also its build quality does not look very high. The Panasonic is the perfect match for my hand. Feels very stable but it comes a bit too pricey for me and also I am not sure I like the format it is using to record videos (if it is a flash memory model I would prefer a good old MPG or any other format that is basically one file per scene)
Thanks for your ideas
Linear Mode
