Technical people - Can you plese tell me the difference between Harddrive camcorders, DVD camcorders and DV camcorders!

[kitsandbits]

The 'harddrive ones' seem very expensive £500-£800

the DVD ones seem to be about £300

but what are DV camcorders?

they seem quite reasonably priced - but why?

what do you transfer the film to?

we have a video one!! lol.

Its like carrying a wheelybin around, and i think this is what i will ask for, as its my birthday soon

thanks

OK, harddrive ones put what you record on the hard drive of the recorder - so you would need to xfer it off.

DVD ones put it onto a DVD

DV ones put it onto a mini-dv tape (what we have).

Most now come with firewire port on the camcorder which you can connect to firewire port on your PC (like USB but faster).

You can then capture the feed from the camcorder into eg Windows Media Player, then mess about with it with various packages that are available to buy - so you can add music, edit, etc.

So a DV one for about £200 is ok?

I just want something to tape the kids, xmas ect and putthe films on to the PC then can put them on a real DVD

is that possible with one of those?

thanks btw

I've got a HD one but to be honest I don't think I use it to it's full potential.. small and handy though.. I think if it's just for family stuff you can get away with a cheaper one.

Are you anywhere near a John Lewis store?

We just bought a Canon which is normally £200 but is on undersale so £149. It's fab. Can tell you model no if you are interested.

They also had a Samsung, normally £200 but on undersale at something ridiculous like £109.

Fab ladymac - yes please - DP works 30 seconds away from one!

Dd1 worked in an edit suite and she said all the production companies used DV. So that kind of swung it for us.

Yes a DV one does that
Generally they'll come with cables so u can plug direct into tv to play as well - which is kinda cool.

I've used mine and recorded on to video - and i've also downloaded to PC and have been messing to add musak and fancy effects (but i don't really have time!) - so long as you have DVD writer on your PC you can cut to DVD!

It's the Canon MD101. Got it at Brent X (on tuesday) so you might want to check your local store to make sure they are selling it at the same price - I think they are Never Knowingly Undersold only with competitors in the same area.

Not that I want to sound like the Canon saleswoman, but it has 30x optical zoom and 800x digital zoom and also films Widescreen!