Makalu

What model gets your vote???

Mak.

Gizmo555

Sony PC8

http://www.currys.co.uk/store/martpr...ory_oid=-11201

Its a bargain ay only £650 (bit more than you say). Can get on-line for sub £600.

Think its been reduced down to this sort of price because its being replaced.

Think they're hard to come by as well.

Cheers

Mark

jbryant

Hi,

I have my eyes on a Panasonic NV-GS50B.
Brand new and about £750 in the shops, though can get many places online for £550-£570 (check www.kelkoo.co.uk). This has all the bells and whistles, and is the replacement for the well received NV-GS5. It's also totally tiny

Here's a thread of mine from the AVForums

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showt...threadid=75557

I'm just waiting on a couple of reviews in the next month or two before I grab one for my June holiday in Toronto (or Skegness, with all this SARS crap )

Cheers
Joolz

Bexlee

Canon MV600i @ £420.

MV630i or MV650i for c.£550-£700 if you want to combine its use as a stills camera.

bigsinky

could also try the jvc gr dvx507 for about 600 - 650 if you shop around.

cheers

big sinky

jbryant

The best thing for you to do is go into your local John Lewis or similar store, and take a look at the various cameras on offer. Make sure you have a good hold of them all and practice using the main buttons as if filming. You don't need power/batteries to work out if it's any good or not.

When I did this I didn't have a scooby what one to get. I instantly dismissed the Sony and JVC cameras I tried as I couldn't get comfortable holding them ('pistol grip' type affairs rather than the palmheld Panasonic. Then it was down to these and Canon MV5 series. I though the MV600 Canons were a bit 'clunky' though technically very good.

Each camera range by a manufacturer will have several variations - essentially this will be the same camera innards, but with two or three models. This will be simialr to the following - I've compared Panasonic and Canon as I dismissed the others early:

Panasonic NV-GS10 / Canon MV5
Standard DV camera with DV-out only
GS30/MV5i (+£50 on above)
Same internals as above but with DV in and DV out
GS50/MV5iMC (+another £100 on above)
As above with DV in+out but with removable smartcard for storing MPEG movies and still shots (otherwise photos are stored as 'freeze frames' on the tape which is a pain in the ****!)

A strong word of advice - Stick with Panasonic, Sony, JVC or Canon. The quality differential between them all is relatively minor and you just pay for the features and style you like. As ever, small price premium for the Sony brand in comparison to other makes, but they've got loads of gadgets. 3CCD cameras is the big jump in quality but price takes it out of your range and the cameras are quite a bit bigger.

...not that I've been doing my homework!

Hope this helps
Joolz


[Edited by jbryant - 4/25/2003 9:25:17 PM]