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/stands besides otto /watches |
mini DV camcorder misery
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phAge 25,487 posts
Seen 3 days ago
Registered 18 years ago -
phAge 25,487 posts
Seen 3 days ago
Registered 18 years agoThat is pretty cool, actually.
EDIT: How big is the thing - in GB's?
Edited by phAge at 00:45:04 01-03-2005 -
mentat 5,613 posts
Seen 3 years ago
Registered 20 years agootto wrote:
fourth time in six years
What the hell are you filming with these buggers? :-o -
reflux 1,804 posts
Seen 1 week ago
Registered 20 years agoSorry Ottster, the proper disk based recorders on the market are still way too expensive for most consumers. As you pointed out, a portable device costs as much as a camera. The cheapest I could find was the Citidisk DV with a 40GB drive for 699 USD. It would be really good for me to have at work, but that's more of a studio situation really so I wouldn't have to carry it around with me.
The tapeless cams on the market, unless you look at those expensive ones for news teams, are shit basically. Most of them don't even record in DV-format but use MPEG-2 instead -> a bitch to edit in most cases. The new HDV-cams use MPEG2 though so support is coming, but I'm not even sure some of the consumer products use full resolution when recording.
Believe me, I hate it as much as you do, but I can't recommend anything else than getting a new mini-DV cam
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rtr 187 posts
Seen 1 day ago
Registered 20 years agoAnyone got a recommendation for a DV Cam? Im new to all this video camera stuff.
Also I suppose this is as good a place as any to announce my impending fatherhood.
/returns to lurking. -
ssuellid 19,142 posts
Seen 7 days ago
Registered 20 years agortr wrote:
Also I suppose this is as good a place as any to announce my impending fatherhood.
Congratulations.
The recommended manufacturers seem to change yearly. When I first looked it was Panasonic, then Sony and the year I bought mine all the mags were recommending Canon and saying to avoid Panasonic and JVC.
I ended up with a Canon 2 years ago and its been faultless and is very easy to use. I ended up paying about £400 for one including a case, extra batteries etc. I did not see the point in paying more as the picture quality seemed to stay the same and only the useless, to me, feature count increased.
Edited by ssuellid at 10:23:02 01-03-2005 -
reflux 1,804 posts
Seen 1 week ago
Registered 20 years agootto wrote:
Otto, there are shops in the US (and probably Canada) that sell PAL gear as well. Mostly due to European tourists who want cheap electronics but also since PAL-equipment is better suited for "DV to film"-transfers (25 fps and higher resolution than NTSC). So, you might be able to buy them online if you want to.
So it looks like an expensive trip to duty free when I'm back in civilisation at the end of March.
Like this one for instance.
Edited by reflux at 08:41:38 02-03-2005 -
reflux 1,804 posts
Seen 1 week ago
Registered 20 years agootto wrote:There are plenty in the US but that's not interesting from Canada as there's duty and taxes to pay on stuff bought from the US.
Oh, I didn't know that
For some reason I've always assumed there was no duty on imports to Canada. Oh well. -
So for the fourth time in six years, my mini DV camcorder has died on me. They're so bloody rubbish. I'm not getting another, I've had enough.
I'm far more interested in the hard drive models that are now finally appearing. Definitely a long overdue technology. Problem is, most of them seem to be fitted with tiny 2 gig or 4 gig drives which is just stupid. Anyone have any recommendations? Anyone got one/used one? Are they there yet or should I wait a bit longer? Can they export DV or what format do they use and how can they be used with existing consumer video editing apps...?
/watches thread disappear into the murky depths of zero response -
Just me and you then. 
Well here's an interesting site I found! Great idea, except... (a) it's external and (b) it costs more than a new DV cam. -
Well I can store one hour-long tape of DV in 12 gigs of space, so if they're charging $599 for a "1.5 hour" drive then they're ripping people off. -
*bumpage*
Tragically it seems you're all right, I'll have to stick with DV tape for the time being, and my Panasonic probably isn't worth trying to get fixed, not least because they don't know whether they can fix a European model over here. And I can't buy a nice cheap camcorder locally because it will only record/play NTSC and all my tapes are PAL - I assume I'm right in thinking that an NTSC camcorder won't play PAL tapes? The geezer in the shop doesn't think so (but then since when did shop geezers know a damn thing about their products?).
So it looks like an expensive trip to duty free when I'm back in civilisation at the end of March. -
mentat wrote:
Er nothing out of the ordinary...
otto wrote:
fourth time in six years
What the hell are you filming with these buggers? :-o.gif)
All four times it has been a problem with the tape spooling mechanism (I tell a lie, once it was the tape loader mechanism). All that rubbish fiddly mechanics. I just can't believe they haven't produced a decent hard-drive camcorder yet, how difficult can it be? Take a 40 gig Hitachi mini-drive, surely it would have no problem capturing full-quality DV on the fly? It's no slower than my 4,200rpm laptop drive is it? And that manages perfectly well over firewire. -
Thanks, that's good thinking. I've found a couple in Canada but they're not offering recent models and the prices are not competitive. There are plenty in the US but that's not interesting from Canada as there's duty and taxes to pay on stuff bought from the US.
For some reason I've always assumed there was no duty on imports to Canada. Oh well. 
.gif)
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