Camcorder advice

[MakeFast]

Okay, I have searched and ended up reading up on a bunch of stuff on AV forums that were way way more expensive than I was looking for.

So I'm looking to get a camcorder for the new baby. Just need something that will record video for the fam, do it reliably, and do okay indoors (since...its a baby and all).

It seems like any time I find something they have review comments like "Great if you aren't indoors" or "Great video but there is a ticking noise from inside the camera on every video."

HD preferred, but not crucial. Recording to anything but a hard drive (tape, flash, on-board SSD, etc.).

Hoping to hit about $400 with enough recording medium to tape an hour or so before I need to dump it onto the computer.

Oh, and I realize this could go in the Photo/Video forum, but they take serious pictures down there, I just need to take mediocre ones.

[Todds]

Can a P&S digicam do a reasonable job at this? And you get to take high quality stills also.

[MakeFast]

My P&S can do like 3-5 minutes worth of video and it looks terrible if not on the little LCD on the camera (its an older P&S). My SLR doesn't take video and has the "high quality stills" arena pretty well locked down.

[whyturn]

My Sony has been great, seen all kinds of action in 5 years. Get steadyshot and avoid tapes if possible. They can get pricey over time. HD is great, S/B able to get one $400 if you look. The Carl Zeiss lens, steadyshot and your set. HD = Hard drive not High def. High def is not nessesary.

[MakeFast]

My Sony has been great, seen all kinds of action in 5 years. Get steadyshot and avoid tapes if possible. They can get pricey over time. HD is great, S/B able to get one $400 if you look. The Carl Zeiss lens, steadyshot and your set. HD = Hard drive not High def. High def is not nessesary.

First, saying "my sony is great" is like telling someone who is asking for ski advice that "my K2's are great."

I can't imagine tapes ever being more expensive than the SD cards if I wanted to archive stuff and are only a touch more annoying when transferring data. I don't want a hard drive - they are prone to failure, eat massive amounts of power, and can fail at high altitude (and I will likely film some ski trips).

Probably going to go with a Canon HV20 - $1300 a couple of years ago, going for $350 on ebay. I can't figure out anything bad about them - record in 1080, reportedly great picture quality, etc. etc.

[whyturn]

look, my sony has seen 11500 in utah in very cold weather, sea world, and 500 other places. Still going strong. Tapes are $3 each if you buy packs of 10, and can only be used a few times without degredation. Zeiss lens is the best Ive ever seen. I have since gone to helmet cams for skiing.
You will spend $350 on camcorder and $300 on tapes. But to each his own. I have extensive experieince in video, both in sales and technically. Just trying to provide some quick concise info. But if you were gonna buy the cannon, why did you ask for info. HD takes up massive computer space, will require large external HD and a decent Mac. I have countour HD, still use Sony for family stuff. Oh yah, in the free thread I offered 10-20 once used JVC and Sony 8 cam tapes. but you probably don't want those cause you already have a line on tapes.
I have pontoons and they are great, but you didn't know that already.
Sony is better than cannon in low end, cannon is better in high end.
Ebay is a scary place to buy electronics, good luck, no seriously, good luck..........

[MakeFast]

look, my sony has seen 11500 in utah in very cold weather, sea world, and 500 other places. Still going strong.

I have had two Hard drive iPods crap out at high elevation - so I won't be using a hard drive to record video. That's about the only requirement I have of whatever camcorder I buy.

My point with saying ""my sony is great" is like telling someone who is asking for ski advice that "my K2's are great"" was that Sony makes a metric crapton of different camcorders - are you using a $150 web camera or a $4k prosumer camera? I don't know - all I know is that you like Sony, which doesn't help me with my decision.

The reason I'm considering tape is 1) it isn't a hard drive and 2) its way cheaper than buying SD cards [since you need class 10 SD cards to reliably record in Hi-Def and you are still facing a drop out every ~20 min when the card opens a new partition].

[whyturn]

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665738322
i Have TRV-30
cards are cheap and can be re-recoreded 5000 times with virt no degreddation
Never had flash fail, but it doesn't like cold, most elec don't like cold except space grade.
Hd is cool if you can maintain. my mac pro will handle it, but at 720 most people cant tell. plus once you compress it to edit it, its maybe 720 anyways.
flash ipod is less susceptible, wrap it in fleece goggle bag. countour uses flash and it is exposed and has never failed, even below zero. but i use 720 setting which is fine. 3 CCD prosumer is the best, all others are consumer. Specs are relative and my STI lit up a carrera 4, so price is relative too. 8 gb SD will do 1 hour HD.
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