New Video Camera

[Central Bassman]

I’m in the market for a new video camera... I want it to be great for outdoor use taping fishing video and spearing videos. I don’t want anything big... Don’t want to spend an arm and a leg on it but want something that will work good. Any tips or opinions would be great… thanks

[sticknstring]

I've also been looking at getting a video cam for bowhunting and was set on the Canon GL2 but now am considering something along the consumer line. I would think the newer hard drive cam's would be more convenient over the minidv tape format as well... What do you think?

[PierBridge]

Until your hard drive dies then you will wish you had the tapes or DVD.

The Panasonic 3 CCD is a Incredible Consumer Camera for the money.

[wormfood]

Get a dv video camera. Those tapes hold up really well and it is fairly easy to get the video transferred to your computer for editing and burning to a dvd. I've got an older Sony TRV-9 model that works well and has the night shot feature which can be handy. A Canon dv video camera will also allow 'pass-through' encoding so you can easily transfer your old VCR tapes to your computer for editing - something that I've been doing with my Sony and it's more tedious.

The hard drive and dvd based camera's are going to encode the video to the mpeg format which makes it harder or impossible to edit any further.

Good Luck.

[Central Bassman]

Thanks for the infor... How much does a camera cost witt DV??

[solbes]

I'll second the mini-DV tape models. I have a Sony TRV33 that has worked great over the years and allows for easy editing. I'm looking forward to taping some underwater stuff this summer with my new Aqua Vu. The Sony has a 1 megapixel camera that I will use on occasion as well (not near the quality of our digital SLR though).

We did have a problem with the CCD going out a few years past warranty (common problem for that unit). Sony repaired the unit for $0 out of pocket. They even gave me pre-printed shipping labels. The whole thing took less than 2 weeks; I was quite happy.

[Central Bassman]

Best place to pick one of them up at??? Best Buy??

[solbes]

We got ours at BB, but I'm sure they're available at most stores. They still sell miniDV models, but with better features and generally for less cost than when I bought.

[Central Bassman]

Thanks Solbes

[Kurt Paulsen]

I know this post is a bit late, but I would also recommend Mini-DV. Anything with 3CCDs is going to beat the pants off of anything with a single CCD. You have 3 times the sensitivity and color information in the video stream. I deal with video equipment everyday, so don't hesitate to ask specific questions.

[Central Bassman]

does it cost more??

[ZEEK1223]

i agree with getting a dv camera.