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#1219293 - 07/20/09 05:53 PM Camcorder help
Fork Ate Spoon Offline
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I'm looking to buy my first camcorder and hoping someone here has experience they're willing to share. I'm leaning towards a Sony or Canon and would like one with a hard drive. But will hear anyone out that has a differing opinion.. SD memory isn't too bad either I suppose. Some HDD's have SD memory slots =) Any advice, experiences, particular models? ($700-$1000 range)

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#1219304 - 07/20/09 06:12 PM Re: Camcorder help Fork Ate Spoon
HappyGilmore Offline
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Pulling people out of the ditc...
sorry buddy, the camcorder I have is so big it looks like a TV station camera...at least 14 years old
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#1219377 - 07/20/09 07:41 PM Re: Camcorder help HappyGilmore
*BUSTER* Offline
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Sorry, no experience I can pass on to you, other than cnet.com.
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#1219804 - 07/21/09 03:41 PM Re: Camcorder help *BUSTER*
buggs Offline
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I have a Sony camcorder that uses tape. It also can record on an SD card, but my card has a fairly small storage capacity so I don't use it much at all.

I've never used a camcorder with a hard drive. You'll probably have to transfer the video to your computer if you want to reuse space on the drive. If you've not done much of that, it can take some time so be sure you want to do that.

The nice thing about tape is that you can shoot and just store the tape until you're ready to transfer it to your computer. It's also easier to share a tape with someone else rather than your camcorder if you want them to see what you've recorded.

Personally, if I were buying a new camera, I'd stay away from hard drive systems and stick with tape or some other kind of removable media storage.

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#1219810 - 07/21/09 03:42 PM Re: Camcorder help HappyGilmore
Miscuit Offline
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Originally Posted By: HappyGilmore
sorry buddy, the camcorder I have is so big it looks like a TV station camera...at least 14 years old


laugh

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#1219836 - 07/21/09 03:57 PM Re: Camcorder help Miscuit
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No quiero tape. Hard drive or sd card (or both is what I'm looking for. Their storage capacity is much better then tapes and is reusable. I can store all my videos on an external hardrive or Blu-Ray discs as opposed to having to store a bunch of tapes. Plus I can easily transfer videos onto my computer for editing, making movies, and uploading to youtube or online storage for sharing.

I think I've settled on a Canon Vixia HF S10. I can carry an extra 16gb sd or two, which should be more then enough memory with the 32gb already in camera.

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#1219874 - 07/21/09 04:21 PM Re: Camcorder help Fork Ate Spoon
The OG Zaibatsu Offline
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I read a tech reporter who thought HD's were too much trouble change his tune a bit when he found some of his tapes had gone bad. Regardless of which you choose, you need to save and save often. And, over time, you'll probably need to save the video to new formats several times. I'd say more, but I keep getting distracted by Fork Ate Spoon's avatar.
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#1219913 - 07/21/09 04:59 PM Re: Camcorder help The OG Zaibatsu
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lol!

Well I figured I could save videos on BR discs as well as an external drive to make sure if one goes bad that I'd have a backup.

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#1219983 - 07/21/09 06:08 PM Re: Camcorder help Fork Ate Spoon
buggs Offline
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Well, maybe I'm missing something here. If you connect the camera to your PC, does it mount like an external drive? If so, then it sounds like it would not be a huge ordeal to transfer the files to your computer or an external hard drive. If so, this is a huge advantage and you should ignore everything I said about tape. smile

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#1220085 - 07/21/09 07:46 PM Re: Camcorder help buggs
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Lol, yeah you can use the camcorder essentially as an external hard drive. You transfer all videos via USB 2.0 to whichever device you choose =) Very cool stuff!

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#1220107 - 07/21/09 08:07 PM Re: Camcorder help Fork Ate Spoon
buggs Offline
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Originally Posted By: Fork Ate Spoon
Lol, yeah you can use the camcorder essentially as an external hard drive. You transfer all videos via USB 2.0 to whichever device you choose =) Very cool stuff!

Then skip the tape. Go for a hard drive or flash card of some kind. laugh

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