Help me buy: Camcorder

**Cheeto** · Jun 27th, 2008, 03:09 PM

That's right kiddies, I'm joining the fray of people who have no ability to make decisions for themselves and are relying on the opinions and experience of others to hopefully lead them to the best option.

I'm getting an HD camcorder, in the 500-700 range. I know that sounds low, but I have a few channels that can get me cameras for cheap, so think of it as a 700-900 range. Probably get a Canon or Sony, just not sure which unit and what media to use (MiniDV, flash, HDD).

I know AVCHD is getting a lot better, but is it as good as HDV yet? How is it editing AVCHD versus HDV (using Final Cut and possibly Premiere)? Will flash memory really be that hampering to my recording ability if I'm using SDHC cards at 4 and 8GB ranges? Are the hard drives in the HDD based cams really so fragile? After all my iPod is hard drive based and has stood up for years of knocking, dropping, squishing, and one smacking. Which cameras are good enough to possibly use to record more than just birthday parties and sex parties? I might want to record actual short films with them (using shoulder mount rigs and home made steady cams) so I wanna be sure that it's not going to work against me with that.

**Cheeto** · Jun 29th, 2008, 03:42 PM

You're all useless!

*emo cry*

**Sonic** · Jun 29th, 2008, 03:54 PM

I don't think any of us has any experience with them.... maybe faceman, but that's it.

**Koobazaur** · Jun 29th, 2008, 08:24 PM

that's actually a pity cause I wanted to buy one myself and could use the advice too :/

Cheeto, maybe just read through newegg/amazon user reviews and look up online benchmarks?

Stephenson · Jun 29th, 2008, 08:26 PM

I got a ZR850. Good camcorder but its bad at night time. If you want a decent film camera you can try a GL2. Their commonly used in films, 28 Days Later used them for fast paced scenes.