Captain Sensible

I am thinking of buying a Camcorder, just want a basic one for the kids parties etc.

I want one that's not bulky, and I guess the only key thing is that I might do some track days next year and might want to do some in-car stuff.

Having had a quick look round and bought What Camcorder I'm completely bewildered, anyone got any advice?

Also any recommendations for the cheapest places to buy?

Ta

NM

How much do you want to pay is the first question ???

Advice thats worked for me

Check out the mags, read the reviews, find out which ones you are interested in, Look for the cheapest advert of the camcorders you fancy (local area 10 miles) Phone them to see if they have some in stock. Pop down to Comet, Currys, Dixons whom match the price + 10% of the difference if its a shop within 10 miles. If its over £100 difference they may turn you away, dont be dispondant and try the next shop.

I saved nearly £200 on a Digital camcorder this way. Had to go to 4 shops until the price was matched though the assistant called the supervisor who called the manager who called the main purchasing office. They also phoned the shop who put the advert in the mag to see if they had stock. But it worked and i got an excellent deal.


1.First get a max price.
2.Decide what format you want digital,video 8, digital 8 etc.
3.Size is also important, too large and its a pain to carry, too small and you cant press the buttons.
4.Price of another battery as the ones they supply only last 1 hr before they need charging.


hope this helps

Cheers

Neal

alistair

Good advice from NM - price first then decide what you actually want to do with it.

I just bought a Sony PC9 and it's the dogs...

My prioritiy was size - too big and I woudn't carry it round much and so wouldn't use it. The trade off is that it doesn't do particularly high quality stills, but I don't really care about that.

It's digital too so you can plug it straight into your PC - I bought a Firewire card, lead and basic editing software for £50 and I can download video, edit it and load it back to the camera with no loss of quality.

It also has memory for photos, or 15 second MPEG's. You can then plug straight into a USB port and copy them directly onto your PC - really easy.

I found the cheapest places were -

vmax

Go down to Comets, jessops and tempo and the like. Ask the sales people for help/advice and grab all the leaflets you can on any machine you like the look of. Get to hold it and have a play. Make a note of the model numbers.

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