Team-BHP - The Camcorder thread : Tech, deals and specs

I got the Canon HF20 and am really happy with my purchase.

The camcorder is simply awesome and I got it for a nice deal ($550:D or so - during Thanksgiving 2009). check out the details at Amazon.

The best thing I like about the HF20 is that it is very light n compact and it fits nicely in my hand and does not cramp your hand even if you need to hold it for extended periods.
2nd best thing - has inbuilt flash memory of abt 32gb (over 4hrs at full-hd recording) and if needed one can add SD cards that are becoming cheaper day by day.
3rd best - has a 3.89mp sensor and can thus take pretty good stills thereby do not need to carry a regular camera along all the time

only thing I did not like about this is the low light performance...has too much of noise and does not capture a good video in low-light conditions (low-light as in side of a river in the jugle on a moon-lit night).

peace,
~kg

i got sony HDR-CX130 a month back from US through one of my friend and it's quality is real good. i upgraded from "Canon ZR850 1MP MiniDV Camcorder"
Cost was $498. this is still not launched in India but surely will launch soon.
I would recommend anyone who is upgrading to HD

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR (Post 2456865)

Can anyone recommend a good HD camcorder within 20k- 30k pricerange (In India)?

Main purpose is to take videos of a newborn baby. :)

20-30K is good budget for a HD Camcorder.
but i think if your purpose is just home videos, I would suggest you to buy a digital camera which is capable of HD Videos.

Like last year i bought a Sony handycam, but it was not HD one, and still pictures are horrible.
Recently i bought fujifilm 2950 a 14MP digital Cam, capable of 720p video and after using stills and taking 720p videos I now find my handycam will go waste :Shockked:

its always difficult to carry multiple camera for home use, and having a digital camera with ability to capture HD movies is the best you can do as in both case you'll need to move the pics/videos to a comp. and having them shot with one cam would be easy to manage and transfer.

HD video size is big, so my best solution which is working good for me is capture video and then convert atleast one copy to a compressed format like mkv and save it at a safe place, this way you have the HD video quaity and saves your storage space too.

if you want a very small HD video capable cam you can check this one
it a low cost best solution and I might buy this and carry it always in my laptop bag, as my semi-SLR is little bulky to be carried everywhere.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghpk (Post 2456878)

20-30K is good budget for a HD Camcorder.
but i think if your purpose is just home videos, I would suggest you to buy a digital camera which is capable of HD Videos.

Its actually for my manager (who is a fried too), and they already have multiple cameras including a Nikon D80 SLR. (His wife loves photography!). At later stages, it may be wasted, but as of now- they will make use of the handycam for shooting the newborn.

How good is Sony HDR-CX130E HDR-CX130E : Flash / Memory Stick : Handycam® Video Camera : Sony India ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR (Post 2456958)

That looks good but I see you can save 4K if you order it online, if that matters to your friend.
Also the CAM has no internal memory, everything is on 32GB stick which is included in offer so they can use multiple sticks for longer videos and then transfer them to PC.

I bought Sony DCR SX44 last year and am happy with it, now I want to upgrade to HD Camcorder and found HDR-CX130/110E. Though I have FZ100 SLR with Full HD capability, low light videos are worst.

Will Sony exchange my old one for the new model, how much will I get for the old one, it has 3 year warranty and the current price in Sony website is 15K.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gopinathann (Post 2530263)

If i am not wrong, CX130/110E doesn't have Optical image stabilization. I hope you have considered this fast.
I got my CX160 from US 3 months back. Optical Image Stabilization is must if you have kid around.

Thanks for that tip. I am not sure whether my Sony DCR 44 has optical stabilization, but it is not that good compared to my Panasonic SLR during high zooms.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nicky (Post 2531588)

Just imported a Panasonic HDC-TM90 camcorder from the US. Sole reason for going for this camcorder was the external mic jack option. No other HD camera has this option within this price range. Excellent capturing of crisp videos with very user-friendly in built 16 GB memory. Price was 30,000 rupees.

Hey guys,

Looking at getting a budget camcorder within 15k. Came across two models Sony DCR-SX21E and Panasonic SDR-S71. I will be exchanging an older Panasonic camcorder to buy this. I "googled" but did not get enough feedback on either models.

Any bhpians using one of these models, kindly share your review here.

Thanks

Srinath