Need a camera to shoot son's wedding!

For only $200, you'd have to find something used somewhere. Anything brand new will give you digi cam quality for that price. You can always up your budget and get yourself a Panasonic SD90 and an SD card. Add fast shipping and that can be perhaps $450 total or hire someone with a good camera like perhaps a high school or college student who is starting to have an interest in video productions and have them give you the footage. Heck they might even edit something for you.

This is a weddings were talking about and it's really best to shoot it with something decent.

You won't get much that's decent for that money. You can get a Panasonic SD90 for around $400.

Canon makes a competitor for about the same money.
Go to this site and read the reviews it should help you out a lot.
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/

After reading head out to Best Buy and try a few to see if you like it before you buy.
Also keep in mind that the batteries that ship with most cameras will last about 1 hour and take about 3 hours to recharge.
So you might want to buy a spare battery.

Not only that but you need a fast PC to deal with the files. Plus you have to learn how to use the camera. I think it would be best to hire someone to video the wedding.

Those are basically digi cams that uses cheap components, cheap lenses and low bit rates. Definitely not something that's suitable for a wedding unless you have no choice. Maybe my advise on hiring someone for $200 may not be such a bad idea.

Heck, a lot of places allows you to pay off cameras in around 6 or 12 month with no interest. As long as you know you'll be capable paying every month, that could be one way to afford a new camcorder.

Maybe a new zero interest rate card so you can pay off the camcorder. Still need a fast PC though.

5 days just isn't enough time to learn how to use the camera. Sounds like you never used one before.

Is it tape or film? What camera do you own?

That's actually why I said either a high school or college student who's just starting out with video productions. You can always put an ad on-line or you can physically go to a high school or college that has students interested in video productions and ask if they know someone who is decent and would be willing to do it for that price.

Another thing to think about is that your son might not mind getting a new and decent camera. I'm sure he may want decent video footage of his first kid right away.

Well if you want something that looks better than a cell phone video then yes you need something witha decent lens and proccessor.
That is why I suggested that you go to the CCI website and check out their reviews.

It seems like a large investment but you will be able to use it for years. Also keep in mind if it does not have internal memory then you will need to buy an SD card to record onto.

You can't buy an $80 camera that will take videos worth watching.

Maybe you could find a audio/video rental store and hire a video camera for a couple of days? That way you'll get a good quality video camera to use on the day and you won't have to purchase any memory cards or extra batteries... Make sure you get a brief tutorial on how to use the camera too.

Alternatively, do you know anybody who could lend you their video camera?

This is excellent advice.

To get a good result in low light, and for dreamy DOF subject isolation (you want to do a good job ?);

you could also fork out 10K for a DSLR and all the gear, and spend months learning it,

or, right up to the end of the scale... spend 10K for STILLMOTION http://vimeo.com/channels/stillmotionfilms to do it - but... you would have to book in advance.

Filming weddings is NO FUN at all - you will be working really hard nearly non-stop, the stress is high. You should also have a buddy on a fixed cam, and record the sound separately too.

Do you want to enjoy the event ?

Well, that isn't film based, it's tape: Hi8 to be precise. I've personally shot Super8 film - more than thirty years ago! You can actually still shoot Super8 today, but facilities to process it are rare. And AFAIK no one is making Super8 movie cameras anymore (we didn't call them camcorders back then). So I knew when you said you bought it "fairly recently" that it is HIGHLY unlikely you were talking about a film-based camera.


You _filmed_ with a tape camera. See how the old language trips us up?

Anyway, the best of the low-cost (<=$200 street price) HD _camcorders_ is, IMO, probably the Samsung HMX-Q10. By all accounts it's not great in low light but otherwise should do okay and it fits your budget (check the online prices, not the big-box stores where the sharks will eat you alive). OTOH, you can still pick up the Sony DSC-HX5V online for just a few sheckles over your limit. It's a still camera that takes pretty darn good video, and likely much better in low light than the Q10. Plus, of course, it takes pretty decent still pictures (10MP), which many low-end camcorders do not (take still pictures that are decent, that is). It's not quite as good video wise as Sony's DSC-HX7V or HX9V models, the latter in particular praised here often because it does 1080p60 (which you don't really need), but those are well above your budget. Some online stores (including the big A) have same day or two-day shipping as well (you need it in hand before the 17th, after all). Buy an inexpensive class 6 8GB SD card for it as well from the same source. You should get anywhere from 1 hour to about 2.5 hours of total recording time on that, depending on HD resolution and quality level. (Okay, now you're well over $200 and we haven't added in tax or shipping charge - sorry!)

You could also, I suppose, opt for a new SD-card-based standard-definition camcorder. Even good ones are usually below $200. Personally I would not. The video they take probably isn't going to look significantly better than Hi8, which you say you are unhappy with.

PS. After reviewing some low-light tests on YouTube let me revise what I said about the HX5V's low light performance. It's probably not any better than the Q10. But it's a better choice on the whole IMO because it is also a full-featured still camera and you can slip it easily into your pants pocket. The Q10 takes horibble still photos and is a bit too big for a pant's pocket.

I've shot a few weddings as a guest. I managed to cover all the major moments and even some of the emotional, non-major moments and still enjoyed myself. If someone doesn't hire a videographer and depends on a family member or some other guest for video coverage, they don't (shouldn't!) have the same expectations for the final result (for one thing they aren't _paying_ anything for it). So the family member or guest "covering" the event shouldn't feel they have to put in the kind of Herculean effort wedding videographers often do. They can still have fun. Just my experience; yours is obviously different.

Ok now the advice I'm going to give you is probably going to tick some people off and it's not that I'm suggesting this as a viable option. But some people have been known to go to Costco and BUY a camcorder for say $400 like the Panasonic SD90 and use it for an event like you mention and then return it afterwards to Costco which has something like a 90 day return policy no questions asked.

Now if you have something like that which is basically point and shoot it's a no brainer to use it unless it's very low light.
Sure you'd still have to cough up for the SD card which would work in any camcorder so you'd be out $40 for a decent SD card and that could be used in any future camcorder should you decide to return something to Costco after say a couple of weeks. Or if you really like it you could keep it.

Oh and don't buy SD cards at Costco, get a good one.

If you've shot weddings before, you know the importance of a tripod and good audio recording. Get/borrow/rent a camera of your choice, but have someone on your current Samsung to use for different angles. One of my favorites is to have a camera behind where the bride is going to stand, shoot through that open space to get the bridesmaids, bible boy, and flower girl coming down the aisle. And the bride! That's stuff the bride never sees; half the activity happens before the bride enters. After the bride gets into place, something happens- a song, prayer, something. While the audience is thus distracted, that camera moves out, off stage, so is not a distraction during the ceremony.

Good luck. Congratulations.