Anyone know anything about digital camcorders?

[Dolemite]

In the market for one (for shooting home-made movies), and not looking to pay more than $800-$1000. The camcorder must be able to shoot in widescreen (most newer ones do).

Anyway, just wondering if anyone has any hands-on experience with them and which type they prefer.

I've done some research, and right now I'm leaning towards Mini DV, as the picture quality and ease of importing into editing programs are supposed to be the best.

However, I'm not sure how many times you can record on the same tape before it affects the picture quality (I hear only 3 or so), so I'm wondering how many tapes I'm going to go through. Also, I'm not sure how exactly the footage turns out when I import it to a PC. Up until now I've been using a little Sony digital camera that saves to a memory stick pro, so every scene I shoot is a separate file. Comes in handy when editing. However, if I'm shooting on tape, would the file I import just be one long clip that I'd then have to edit into the individual shots, or does it somehow import as separate clips?

I've pretty much ruled out the newer DVD-based camcorders, as the picture quality isn't as good as Mini DV (due to the video being converted to MPEG-2 for burning to the DVD, but I'm not sure how noticable the compression will be), and there's been many reported problems when trying to import the video into editing programs, or even just trying to get it to play in things like Windows Media Player. Seems DVD camcorders are more for families wanting to make a vacation disc.

Of course, there's a few hard drive-based camcorders on the market, which I know the least about. I've played around with a few in-store, and they seem pretty cool, but I'm not aware of the drawbacks/problems they may possess.

[Mykozo]

Def stay away from the DVD recorders. You're right, those things are meant for people that want to do everything with the camera to the finished product.

Mini DV is probably your best route. Firewire connectivity makes it compatible with nearly every video editing app, and gives you machine control (controlling the camera's transport with your comp) while you digitize, which is nice for helping you review which clips you want to bring into your edit software, thus saving you drive space by not having to digitize the whole tape. I also helps in the editing process, as you can bring in segments that you want to include in the sequence, and label the clips appropriately, rather than having one giant 60 min file that you then have to go in and break up.

I wouldn't worry much about the tapes, as Mini DV's are like 15 bucks for three 60 min tapes, and you can probably get em cheaper online. I wouldn't really reuse em anyway, as you never know when you might want to pull out old footage. You should also hold on to them in case of a comp or drive failure, so that you won't lose the clips that you digitized should something nasty happen.

As for types of cameras, I'm particular to Sony and Canon stuff. You can probably find a Canon XL1A on ebay for less than a grand, and they are really nice, although I forgot if it has a widescreen mode. Be aware that some cameras with widescreen don't do true 16x9, they just letterbox, something that you can do in your video app if you wanted to.

[Dolemite]

Thanks Mykozo, that was a big help. You answered the few nagging questions I had left about Mini DV. I'm going to go that route.

This model caught my eye.

Thanks again.

[Mykozo]

No sweat. That Sony looks nice, packed to the brim with features, small, and not bad at 800 bucks. Go for it, I always dig Sony stuff.