help buying first camcorder

Go to camcorderinfo.com and look at their rankings, then read the reviews.

I have a Panny TM700 and I absolutely love it. For the money, nothing beats the TM900 (IMOP).

Canon hf g10 if you can afford it is a great camera. I also recommend Sony hx100v and hx9 point shoot cameras they are awesome for the money and ease of use. My goto camera is the hx100v

I have two camcorders, an earlier version of the Panasonic TM900 and a Sony HX9V that looks like a pocket point and shoot. They both take extremely good quality video. The smaller one often works in places where the bigger one won't and I have it with me, in my pocket. I would buy both again without hesitation.

This week I finished this video with the smaller, cheaper HX9V: https://vimeo.com/36973087

Sony, Panasonic and Canon all make great camcorders. Don't get carried away with the specs. Pick any of them that say HD or AVCHD or 1080p in the specs and use SD cards for memory. Make sure it feels good in your hands. Then learn the camera, its features, functions and limitations. The get your head around capturing short stories with motion and sound in them.

Good luck and have fun.

Bill

The differences in quality between the cameras are noticeable to SOME trained eyes when watching on an HDTV but very few people (if anyone) can distinguish the difference of 1080 videos on YouTube even with very careful comparison.

I chose the Sony CX550V (1 1/2 years ago) even though was it more expensive at the time and had what was considered slightly lower quality video than the others. It had ever-so-slighly better low light ability and image stabilization (at no-zoom), infra-red nightshot ability for no-light situations, the largest LCD screen, and most importantly the widest angle lens. These have been valuable to me.

1/2.6 vs 1/3 sensor would be significant if you were comparing still photography cameras. With these video cameras however there are so many variables in the guts that it may or may not make a difference. Backlit sensors are similar on most brands and way better than non-backlit. 24 vs 60p is significant if there is a lot of motion, otherwise it's not. I don't miss it even videoing little league games, but I do wish I had it when I slow-motion the video while editing.

I wish my Sony had a little sharper video but capturing the moment properly is a lot more important than the difference in resolution (to me). Resolution is very important to me on still photography (which these video cameras are terrible at).

Figuring out how to edit, combine clips, and archive was a MUCH bigger issue to me than camera choice. Camera choice is almost insignificant in comparison. Here's my original post describing everything I went through:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1266943

x2

I'd just like to say thank-you jazztalker for starting this thread. I too just started the research process involved in choosing just the right camera and wanted expert feedback. Speaking of which, any recommendations regarding tripods? Are most camcorders bad at still photography in terms of resolution and or picture quality? Should I consult Consumer Reports magazine in making my choice of which camera to get? Is there a brand that is known for being the most MAC compatible?

Dude, do you enjoy posting this kind of reply?? You also posted in a thread I started with a link to a page in Wikipedia which was of no help whatsoever, when all I asked was what is a relatively inexpensive video editor for an iMac. If I wanted to use Wikipedia, I would. If the OP in this thread had wanted to read reviews from camcorder.com, they would. But they didn't. They came here and asked it's members what they thought.

Even though video cameras have improved their photo taking abilities, you still can't beat a standalone digicam. Even a $300 digicam will beat the best video cameras in terms of still photos. If you don't mind carrying a second gadget along with you then I would recommend picking up a still camera.
I'd recommend looking at: http://www.steves-digicams.com/ or http://www.dpreview.com/ for reviews...

Re: Mac compatibility. All still cameras work well with Macs. All cameras record in the universal JPG format and Macs, Windows, Unix etc. machines will be able to handle them with ease. All you need to do is plug your camera into your Mac and a window will popup asking you to transfer your photos across. If you want to copy the files manually then that's straight forward as well.

Thanks for the info! What about Mac compatibility and camcorders as opposed to still cameras? Which brands of camcorders are the most compatible with a Mac?

That Panasonic TM 900 mentioned above, is it only available in America?

My opinion is a little different from sabatical's on camcorders and still photos. I have taken pretty good 14.2 megapixel stills with my TM900, like this one:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YOsHAPgPDy...0/M1000018.JPG

and pretty good 16MP stills with a Sony NEX-VG20:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QHhlGqtAaY...0/DSC00011.JPG

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IHzzvidRN-...0/DSC00002.JPG

And yes, the TM900 is available in Canada.

Hope this is helpful

Cheers,

Bill
Hybrid Camera Revolution

Drink some coffee and quit being so testy.

Another one line post.