I'm in a quandry

[misty57]

about choosing a camcorder. My DH has a dvd camcorder by Hitachi. I don't like it at all. It's too hard for me to figure out. I've been looking at the Sony DCR- HC52 miniDV 40x. and the Samsung flashmemory . I like the idea of being able to just use a memory card like I do with my digital camera. THe miniDV has better reviews but seems like it needs a lot of other equipment for playback like a firewall cable( I have no idea what that is or if our computer has the card that it would need) plus a battery charger and the tapes. Does anyone have personal experience with these products? I want simple operation and playback but reasonably good video. Any advise would be appreciated!:)

[cruisetobeaches]

about choosing a camcorder. My DH has a dvd camcorder by Hitachi. I don't like it at all. It's too hard for me to figure out. I've been looking at the Sony DCR- HC52 miniDV 40x. and the Samsung flashmemory . I like the idea of being able to just use a memory card like I do with my digital camera. THe miniDV has better reviews but seems like it needs a lot of other equipment for playback like a firewall cable( I have no idea what that is or if our computer has the card that it would need) plus a battery charger and the tapes. Does anyone have personal experience with these products? I want simple operation and playback but reasonably good video. Any advise would be appreciated!:)

 

The transfer cable for many DV camcorders require a "Firewire" port. It looks something like your USB port, but takes a different cable and has a different cable plug pattern. Most newer computers have a firewire port. USB transfer of DV is really slow. Firewire is much faster.

 

We have a panasonic that uses DV tape. It is considered old technolgy now since it is about three years old, but I like it. It works well, And, most important..............I already went through the learning curve of how to use it!

 

A higher capacity battery option is also availble for most and is a good investment if you are going to shoot a lot of video. In any case, a spare battery is always good to have as a backup.

[misty57]

Thanks so much for the answer. Firewire... not firewall :o. Just to show how much I don't know about these things... using the firewire cable can you download the videos from your camera and save them onto a DVD that you can play on a regular DVD player?

[cruisetobeaches]

Thanks so much for the answer. Firewire... not firewall :o. Just to show how much I don't know about these things... using the firewire cable can you download the videos from your camera and save them onto a DVD that you can play on a regular DVD player?

 

yes, but you will need some type of software (usually bundled with the camcorder and/or DVD recorder) to convert and edit before burning to the DVD. Believe me, you WILL need to edit! I have a tendency to 'overshoot' video, making it too long for an enjoyable video to show friends and family. I make a DVD of every cruise we take and give copies to those who go with us. I try to keep them under 60 minutes in length, but I may have shot over two hours video while on the cruise. Hence, the editing.

 

There are an abundance of video editing software packages available that will probably be better than what is bundled, some such as Adobe, are really high end and have a big learning curve. Roxio and Visio are basic and do not offer all the bells and whistles. But, they are easy to learn.