digital camcorders-What do you have

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

I have a Sony TRV-520 about 4 years old and have been happy with
it (except for when it died just before we went to Alaska ... ), however
there are a number of issues to consider. I have seen several articles
indicating that in general, MOST of the consumer grade digital
camcorders perform poorer in low light than the equiv. analog version
due to the way the data is compressed (DV is 5:1 compressed).
That said, it depends on what your requirements are etc. Some people
would not be caught dead with a single chip camera others are very
happy with them. It really is nice to avoid all the messy analog
capture issues and simply copy the digital data into the computer for
editing. Some cameras also have a feature called "pass through" that
will let you take an analog input and spit out DV on the firewire
connector - this may or may not be important to you. Some of
the Sony Digital 8 cameras can play (and convert) the old analog
8mm tapes to DV which is handy if you have a bunch of older
tapes and a dead analog camera. Check out the two newsgroups
rec.video.desktop and rec.video.production -- this is a common
question over there.

mikey

<jwr4@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:14958-41B0EC4C-75@storefull-3315.bay.webtv.net...
> I have been looking for a digital camcorder and would like some input on
> the different brands and models.
>
> Circuit City, Best Buy, etc. have buyer reviews, but it seems with most
> cameras, some are happy with their purchase of a particular model while
> others say the same model is terrible.
>
> My brothe has a JVC GRD-72US and loves everything about it. Some reviews
> say inside video quality is poor with this camera, but my brother says
> he doesn't see any problems as long as the lights are on. Not sure if he
> means the room lights or the camera light.
>
> So, what do you have, and are you happy with indoor/outdoor video
> quality, etc.?
>
>
>
>

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

"Bob the Printer" <bdolson@comcast.net> wrote in
news:yaednRNVkYet1izcRVn-2g@comcast.com:

> I bought a Sony TRV-460 digital8 camcorder earlier this year and am
> VERY happy with it's performance. I went with digital8 since I have a
> collection of analog 8mm tapes that I took in the 90's and have been
> able to convert them to a pure digital format using the TRV-460. Also,
> the size of the digital8 suits me a little better as it's not nearly
> as small as most of the DV camcorders and the tapes are a bit cheaper
> also. Plus it has a 20X optical zoom, while most of the DV camcorders
> are 10X or so. It is also less expensive than most DV camcorders.
>

I got one of these a few weeks ago to replace a dead 12 year old 8mm
Handycam. It is a very nice unit (especially considering the $320 price
tag). It's got built in IR emitters for shooting in the dark. The way the
A/D conversion works is you just plug any analog source into the unit, and
it outputs digital on the firewire line. I haven't actually gotten to doing
that yet, but it sounds handy.

We're very happy with it too. The only feature I don't appreciate is the
touchscreen LCD, because I don't like fingerprints on my screen.

Bob

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