DVD Camcorders

[david12345]

hi, considering buying a dvd camcorder;

there are some negatives

ie lower quality video and editing issues

 

but the particular situation , ie;

*a few staff clogging up network with video "in progress"

*most staff find pinnacle too difficult and using imovie &idvd on a laptop too time-consumimg

*easy to use solution for pupils

*management wanting every class to be regularly making videos;

 

seem to suggest a dvd camcorder.

Has anyone used one of these and can give some feedback as to ease of use, quality,reliability, editing (in-camera, or on PC)?

Any reccomendations or otherwise of particular dvd camcorders? :?:

[john]

I've used the Sony ones, nice bits of kit and seem ok.

[Ric_]

We have 1 sony one... the quality is very good but it wasn't cheap. The biggest problem is the fact that you cannot easily get the footage into a PC for editting... you have to rip it off the DVD which can lead to audio synching issues.

 

Personally, I would not recommend one to somebody if there is a remote chance of them wanting to edit the footage.

[Gerry]

I think your best bet is a camcorder with a Firewire connection and a copy of Adobe Elements (around £60 I think). I wouldn't recommend a DVD camcorder though - my experience has been with a 3 year-old Sony Handycam and it takes ages to start and prepare/finalise disks, and then it could only store 30mins at high quality.

[alan-d]

A Sony DCR-SR52E has a 30GB HDD and is very easy to use. We got ours from here with a LCS VA30 case and tripod for about £377. I think the camera was about £328.

[john]

I agree with Ric on the editing thing, they are a right pain to edit.

[FN-GM]

my friend has one of them sony handycams, he has alsorts of problems with the DVDs i am unsure wot it is i will ask him