Hey guys! I have an older Sony Handycam which I haven't used in so many years. I've been using my Kodak EasyShare for taking my videos. Its great because its small and the quality isn't that bad. The only thing is that it won't zoom when in video mode and it records on a SD card. I'm looking to buy a "real" video camera and would like help to what to buy. My first choice is of course and HD cam but the price tells me otherwise. I'm looking for a camera I can hook up to my pc and able to edit. I'm thinking something digital. Any ideas or help? Thanks!
i have a canon zr60 which records digital to miniDV tapes. it's ok, but video editing takes a lot of time and i really dont care for it that much.
Cameras with HDD or DVD uses MPEG 2 compression which at the best quality only uses 8 mbps bitrate. miniDV cameras use DV25 compression which is runing at 25 mbps bitrate (far less compression). I'd choose quality over convenience, so miniDV is the only way to go for me. JMO, of course.
Thanks Kelly, I took your advie and bought a JVC MiniDV. The problem I have now is loading it into my computer. I'm connecting it with the USB but nothing is happening. I even followed the steps in the manual. The only thing my computer will pick up is the SD card that you can also use in the camera. When I try it without the card it won't find that the camera is plugged in. I tried to even open it with my Windows Movie Maker and still nothing. Any Ideas? Thanks!
IIRC there are USB and iLink (firewire) connections. The USB is for the digital still pictures only and the iLink is for the video.
alright, I bought the Firewire cable that was needed for mine. IEEE 1394. The only problem now is it wont connect into my computer....It seems that both the camera and computer will only take the 4pin side. Does that sound right?
there are two types of IEEE 1394 connectors. You just need to find the one that both your camera and your PC will accept. Usually the 4-pin connector is referred as "iLink" connector (instead of "firewire" connector -- which is 6-pin). To see all types of connectors (and their subtypes and nicknames), you can go to: http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/connecters.html I always use the above site as my 'bible'.
