maybe off topic - camcorder recommendations

Johnboy2978

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Hello all, this may be the wrong section or even wrong forum, but I would imagine that with so many people in photography here, there is probably some overlap with those who do video as well. So, my wife has gotten bit by the camcorder bug and would like to get one so that we can capture all of those 'firsts' for our 11 month old daughter who is quickly growing up.

I must admit, that I know zero about camcorders, and have never really had much of an interest in them. Even now, I'd rather catch a heart warming moment on film/sd card than video. So, I thought someone may have some recommendations here as to brand/media type/etc. I'm thinking fairly low budget $500 or less, since I have a modest amount of $ invested in still camera equipment.

What will I do with it? As stated, primarily just get some short home movie type stuff. I don't plan to do any sporting events, no really low light/dark stuff, no professional video productions, no concerts, etc. etc.

Any advice? Mods, feel free to move this if it's too far off from center.
 
I'm a film student so i know some stuff. The panasonic pv-gs series is really good and inexpensive.

http://www.prestigecamera.com/product.asp?id=pspvgs300&itemname=Panasonic%20PV-GS250,%203CCD%20Ultra-Compact%20Digital%20Camcorder&discontinued=1
The pv gs 300 and right in your budget $455.

there are also lower models then the 300 for cheaper prices and those are still really good. I myself am a fan of pansonic. I have herd the canon optura is good too but i have never used a canon camcorder so i cant say from experience. But i do know they make good quality products.
It has a digital camera feature for those snap shots you might want. 3CCD for great colors and these are really simple cameras to use.
I reccomend sticking to a mini dv camera, the tapes are the best. The hard drive and dvd cameras are way over priced and plus with tape it is really easy to import into lets say windows movie maker or imovie which comes installed on your computer and you can put togethe rnice home videos with titles and all.

Hopefully i helped you some


- one more thing you might want to try and stay away form sony. from what i have seen they are way over priced for the features they have just because of the sony name. And with all this back to school happening you might want to look for some deals. day after thanks giving sales are a great time to buy all the extra batteries and a bunch of tapes because they often have big rebates on those so you might want to hold out on the extras for a tiny bit until then
 

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