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Need camcorder for new baby

post #1 of 24
6/7/10 at 11:59pm
Thread Starter 
We are having a baby that is due next month, and I know I shouldn't have waited until the last minute to buy a camcorder, but hopefully you guys can help me out. I have only actually really looked a couple times at a couple different stores and both stores recommeded the Canon HFR-10 they had there (between $400-$450). I looked up reviews on that model when I got home, and while there were good reviews, there were a lot that mentioned a grinding noise that was picked up by the mic and could be heard on the playback (don't know how big of an issue that is). I didnt want to mention any models because I am completely open to any suggestions, and really don't know a lot about them. But I would like to keep this under $500 (preferably closer to the $400), and I do have a 52" tv so I would imagine I should go with an HD camcorder. As far as viewing them on discs, one salesman told me I need a blu ray burner, and the other said I could burn them on regular DVDs but need a blue ray player to play them in hi def. So I am not sure which is true there. But I do have a PS3 so I suppose I could always just plug an external hard drive into that to play them. Anyways, I don't want to spend a ton on this, but do want something to record my baby growing up. I appreciate any suggestions.
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post #2 of 24
6/8/10 at 4:12am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dman76 View Post

We are having a baby that is due next month, and I know I shouldn't have waited until the last minute to buy a camcorder, but hopefully you guys can help me out. I have only actually really looked a couple times at a couple different stores and both stores recommeded the Canon HFR-10 they had there (between $400-$450). I looked up reviews on that model when I got home, and while there were good reviews, there were a lot that mentioned a grinding noise that was picked up by the mic and could be heard on the playback (don't know how big of an issue that is). I didnt want to mention any models because I am completely open to any suggestions, and really don't know a lot about them. But I would like to keep this under $500 (preferably closer to the $400), and I do have a 52" tv so I would imagine I should go with an HD camcorder. As far as viewing them on discs, one salesman told me I need a blu ray burner, and the other said I could burn them on regular DVDs but need a blue ray player to play them in hi def. So I am not sure which is true there. But I do have a PS3 so I suppose I could always just plug an external hard drive into that to play them. Anyways, I don't want to spend a ton on this, but do want something to record my baby growing up. I appreciate any suggestions.

For recording your baby you really need to look at getting a pocket cam like a Flip Mino HD 2nd generation or a Kodak Zi8,,,, as examples.

Reason being is the pockets cams are super fast and easy to just start recording those fleeting baby moments on the fly.

When people are recording their babys and kids they will always grab the pocket cam before digging out the standard type camcorder.

The pocket cam's I mentioned also take very good HD footage and that footage can be burned to BluRay or SD DVD.

The Mino HD 2nd gen and the Kodak Zi8 can be had for around $150.

I own/have owned, pocket cams and traditional camcorders,,,, the camcorders sat on the shelf and collected dust while my pocket cams get used all the time.

Cheers
Davyo
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post #3 of 24
6/8/10 at 5:47am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dman76 View Post

We are having a baby that is due next month, and I know I shouldn't have waited until the last minute to buy a camcorder, but hopefully you guys can help me out. I have only actually really looked a couple times at a couple different stores and both stores recommeded the Canon HFR-10 they had there (between $400-$450). I looked up reviews on that model when I got home, and while there were good reviews, there were a lot that mentioned a grinding noise that was picked up by the mic and could be heard on the playback (don't know how big of an issue that is). I didnt want to mention any models because I am completely open to any suggestions, and really don't know a lot about them. But I would like to keep this under $500 (preferably closer to the $400), and I do have a 52" tv so I would imagine I should go with an HD camcorder. As far as viewing them on discs, one salesman told me I need a blu ray burner, and the other said I could burn them on regular DVDs but need a blue ray player to play them in hi def. So I am not sure which is true there. But I do have a PS3 so I suppose I could always just plug an external hard drive into that to play them. Anyways, I don't want to spend a ton on this, but do want something to record my baby growing up. I appreciate any suggestions.

Two notes:

1. I'm not sure I agree with the post about only considering pocket camcorders. I agree that they have a great convenience factor, but I suspect HD picture quality improves a fair bit as you move up into the small camcorder range. Whether you would carry one of those around (pocket or otherwise) would be a personal habit kind of thing. I'm not offering advice on any models as I use one of the higher-end consumer camcorders that is quite small and I carry it around a lot. I'm just suggesting you check out both the pocket ones and the regular ones as the latter are also way smaller than they used to be.

2. Good news on you and HD. Since you have the PS3 already, you are right, you can just put all your video, stills (if your camcorder takes them or you have a camera), music, etc. onto the PS3's own drive or an attached external drive and the PS3 should play back everything. AVCHD is the dominant HD format at the moment, and the PS3 definitely plays those beautifully. That's the combo I have - a PS3 and a 500 GB external drive attached. You want either a second one for backup or a large enough PC hard drive as well, but the price of an external drive now is low.
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post #4 of 24
6/8/10 at 6:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Gull View Post

I'm not sure I agree with the post about only considering pocket camcorders. I agree that they have a great convenience factor, but I suspect HD picture quality improves a fair bit as you move up into the small camcorder range

I would respectfully dis-agree in part,,,, my experience has been that the video quality from the pocket HD cams is just as good as traditional type camcorders in the under $450.00 price range the OP stated as his budget.

My opinion is while a $450.00 camcorder will offer more in the way of features it will be splitting hairs to tell the difference in the HD PQ.

If you want a noticeable jump in HD PQ over an HD pocket cam you would have to spend more than 5 or 6 hundred dollars on a camcorder to really see a difference.

Just my opinion of course.

Cheers
Davyo
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post #5 of 24
6/8/10 at 8:03am
picture quality "might" be similar, but you can't tell me that a tiny CMOS sensor is a pocket cam has as good low light ability as say a TM700 or CX550. Enjoy your grainy HD movies.

I bought my cx550 for a new baby because most shooting is done inside, hospital, home, etc. My camera is always close by and can be started up very quickly, you cant tell me that a pocket cam will get going faster.
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post #6 of 24
6/8/10 at 8:08am
Just be sure it has an optical zoom. Someone asked my opinion on a pocket camera I had no idea about, after looking at the specs it only had a digital zoom
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post #7 of 24
6/8/10 at 8:10am
you don't want to cheap out on priceless footage, 10 years from now when you look at your crappy, grainy HD footage you'll wish you sprang for the extra cake to get better quality
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post #8 of 24
6/8/10 at 9:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dustindu4 View Post

picture quality "might" be similar, but you can't tell me that a tiny CMOS sensor is a pocket cam has as good low light ability as say a TM700 or CX550. Enjoy your grainy HD movies.

I bought my cx550 for a new baby because most shooting is done inside, hospital, home, etc. My camera is always close by and can be started up very quickly, you cant tell me that a pocket cam will get going faster.

Those are pricier than desired here per the OP, but the 350 or 150 series cams might be in the right price range and still provide better picture quality. I agree, all other things being equal, the sensor size should make a difference. But a lot of pieces go into the pricing equation as well.
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post #9 of 24
6/8/10 at 9:36am
the iauto feature of the cx500 has a "baby" mode. Not sure how much it helps but every time I point the camera at my kid the little baby icon shows up on the screen and he has a orange box on his face to focus on
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post #10 of 24
6/8/10 at 9:39am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dustindu4 View Post

the iauto feature of the cx500 has a "baby" mode. Not sure how much it helps but every time I point the camera at my kid the little baby icon shows up on the screen and he has a orange box on his face to focus on

The 550? This generally sounds like "face recognition" is on which is in both the 500 and the 550. But maybe the 550 has a new "optimized for baby faces" mode? If there is more than one person in the picture, I think the orange box identifies which one (or ones) is currently being tracked for focus and maybe for smile capture as well.
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post #11 of 24
6/8/10 at 9:44am
Thread Starter 
Ok now I am even more confused considering the pocket cam was brought up! I admit I have no experience with those, but to me it just makes sense a larger sensor would do better especially indoors. But I could be wrong! I am also in the market for a new compact camera to go along with my larger one (because I know the smaller one would be with us all the time) and it looks like some of those shoot pretty decent HD video. I think that would be suitable for having with us all the time in case we need to shoot some video. So I don't really think the pocket camcorder is necessary. I know some people that have a baby and keep shooting video with their phone and it may be cool to send it to people, but it looks horrible when blown up! I want to have good video that can be viewed on a tv. So hopefully that helps in making suggestions.

One more thing on the discs....So are you saying I can burn HD video on a standard DVD, and it will play in HD on a blu ray player? If I were to make discs for people without HD tvs, will they just play in standard def on a regular DVD player?
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post #12 of 24
6/8/10 at 10:12am
Quote:


One more thing on the discs....So are you saying I can burn HD video on a standard DVD, and it will play in HD on a blu ray player? If I were to make discs for people without HD tvs, will they just play in standard def on a regular DVD player?

You can make HD movies on a regular DVD to be played only on a Blu-Ray player. They will NOT play on a standard DVD player. Based on feedback received on this forum I was told that a regular DVD will hold about 25 - 30 minutes of HD material. Once again, you cannot give those discs to family members who do not own a Blu-Ray player.
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post #13 of 24
6/8/10 at 10:26am
Thread Starter 
Can you burn a SD version onto a regular disc though for other family members to watch?
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post #14 of 24
6/8/10 at 10:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dman76 View Post

Can you burn a SD version onto a regular disc though for other family members to watch?

I have not tried that yet but I would bet either the bundled software or any other editors capable of editng AVCHD files (Sony Vegas, Premiere Pro, etc) should be able to downsample the materials to the SD resolution.
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post #15 of 24
6/8/10 at 11:05am
My wife is due in a few weeks and I have spent a bunch of time researching camcorders. I ended up buying a Canon HF M30 from HH Gregg last night as it was the cheapest ($560) I found. It was either the Canon or the Sony CX-150 that they have at Sams Club for $480. Decided the extra money was worth it.

After only messing with it for an hour or so I really like it.
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post #16 of 24
6/8/10 at 6:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dman76 View Post

Can you burn a SD version onto a regular disc though for other family members to watch?

The Sony PMB software included with the handycam models allows you to make SD movies on DVD from your HD footage. No extra software required to do this
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post #17 of 24
6/8/10 at 6:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Gull View Post

The 550? This generally sounds like "face recognition" is on which is in both the 500 and the 550. But maybe the 550 has a new "optimized for baby faces" mode? If there is more than one person in the picture, I think the orange box identifies which one (or ones) is currently being tracked for focus and maybe for smile capture as well.

yes the 550 has special facial recognition for babies, it can instantly tell the difference between an adult and a baby
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post #18 of 24
6/8/10 at 8:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dustindu4 View Post

yes the 550 has special facial recognition for babies, it can instantly tell the difference between an adult and a baby

Cool! But wouldn't that be embarrassing if it took a picture of you and...

Re an earlier post from the OP mentioning stills: the better camcorders in your price range may take stills that would be fine with you. You'd want to try to find some samples online to check out, or to read reviews. I carry only a camcorder now and never a camera as I'm personally happy with the camcorder's stills. I have the CX500V which will take 6MB stills, effectively. Since most of my viewing is on an HDTV or PC monitor and I don't print a lot, these stills look great there at 16:9 and I just don't feel like carrying two pieces of equipment around. There are tradeoffs, but it is arguably better to get really good video and decent stills via a camcorder than to get really good pictures and mediocre video via a camera. But it's very much a personal preference kind of thing.
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post #19 of 24
6/8/10 at 10:18pm
Well for anyone saying that the pocket cam's take grainy crappy HD video, here are a few sample clips of the Vado HD 3rd generation pocket cam that can be had on Vado's website for $122.00,,,, I have one of these Vado's and the video I have at home (not processed by YouTube) is even better than these samples.

The Vado HD 3rd gen also does amazingly good in low light as well.

Make sure to click on the HD option when watching these clips !!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVNhC...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WIll...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugYmz...eature=related

Cheers
Davyo
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post #20 of 24
6/8/10 at 10:49pm
Here are also a few sample clips of the Kodak Zi8 pocket cam, can be had at most stores for around $180.00.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_u4r...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftv08NkQVAE
A review of the Zi8 for anyone not familar with all its features,,,, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXSQLgdAIiQ

Cheers
Davyo
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post #21 of 24
6/8/10 at 10:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dustindu4 View Post

you don't want to cheap out on priceless footage, 10 years from now when you look at your crappy, grainy HD footage you'll wish you sprang for the extra cake to get better quality

Is this some of the grainy crappy video you mentioned ???,,, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_u4r...eature=related

Cheers
Davyo
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post #22 of 24
6/8/10 at 11:05pm
I bet you'll find more side effects in the lens when outside and the panning wont be as smooth as more traditional camcorders. Plus, the zoom on a lot of them is only 1x and some goes up to 5x.

Now speaking of that Vado, the resolution is only 720 30p and theirs only a 2X digital zoom.

You claim that some of the top digicams are close to cameras that costs $450 but they are miles away from even the Sanyo FH1A which costs $316 although it does have some of it's own issues.
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post #23 of 24
6/9/10 at 6:03am
Just going by your thread title, I would start off with a Fisher-Price for a new baby. Then get something better when they are older. Sorry couldn't resist
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post #24 of 24
6/9/10 at 10:30am
Thread Starter 
Ha! Good one.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chevypower View Post

Just going by your thread title, I would start off with a Fisher-Price for a new baby. Then get something better when they are older. Sorry couldn't resist
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