With Dragon fast approaching, I want to get Andi a good camcorder. I need suggestions from all of you experts.

Here are the specs: the camera has to be small. smaller is better. The viewfinder should be at least 2.7". Optic zoom should be substantial. I pay little attention to digital zoom.

It is so much harder to find the right equipment today. So many stores have closed or have such limited stock. It has become difficult to actually touch the equipment before the buy. Went to Best Buy today & the selection was sad.

Any and all suggestions are welcome.
Thanks.... Doug

I know NOTHING about camcorders but have a friend who does and has a Flip and loves it.

And now I'll stand back . . . . .<BG>

Peggy

Peggy:

Thanks! The flip is great... But I think that e want something a wee bit more.

Doug

Doug,
After ROAR 2 I decided we needed a camcorder to go with the dslr. I bought the canon hg21. It has a 120g hard drive and a slot for an sd card. I added an 8g sd card. With the 120g hard drive I can take 11 hours of hd video. The only thing I might have done different is to not pay up for the 120g hard drive and go with the 60g drive. I would suggest looking at the info on this one. I bought from B&H which is low price. As you are in NY it might not save you as much. I have used B&H for a lot of photo stuff over the years and always been happy. From my research Canon was a leader in the camcorder area. As you might remember my dslr is a Nikon. The video I have taken so far are quite excellent in quality. My only complaint is my computer is old and it takes for ever to create a high format dvd.

I bought the extra battery with more capacity and the 8g sd card when I bought the camcorder. I would recommend doing this. The battery that comes with the hg21 is not a high capacity one. B&H also included a carry case which works very well.

Hope this helps if you have any other questions let me know. Looking forward to seeing you and Andi on NILE and ROAR 3.

Doug, do you work in the city? That B&H store in NY has great sales people who know so much about the products they sell. I know nothing about camcorders. Wonder if there is a camcorder review site equivalent to dpreview.com

Hi Doug. I agree that a store like B&H is a good idea. Cnet is a good web site to use for reviews. I can't recommend a specific model but I would offer some things to consider.

Do you want standard definition or high definition? If you want to work in HD you have to have the software that can process it.

What record media do you want? Most new camcorders use hard drives or flash memory. It's harder to find one that still uses mini DV tape but there are a few. If you shoot tape you get to keep the tapes as a record. But the transer of the video to your computer is in real time. If you use a hard drive or flash memory you can download the video to your computer at much faster than real time. But the only archive you will have is on your computer which eventually will fill up. So you might have to buy an external hard drive to store the video.

All of the new consumer camcorders are built to be small. So you'll never get the type of lens your looking for unless you step up to the pro-sumer models which usually run $3-5,000.

Good luck. Tom.

Doug, I'm not sure what kind of video recorder you want. But, I am at a blogging conference (think 1500 women, scary huh?) and many of them use one of the various versions of the Flip camera. Today at breakfast, one of the writers showed me a Sony camera that takes photos or videos then wirelesly uploads the images from the camera to the internet. That would certainly be useful for me but not sure about how Andi would be using the camera. Anyway, just a thought.

Oh, one more thing about the Sony, it had a great screen to show what you were shooting, which makes it a good option. My writer friends say that with the Flip, if you are shooting yourself, it's hard to know what the camera is capturing.

Doug - my father has the Sony HDR-TG5V camcorder and loves it. I have to admit that the image quality is pretty nice. It's tiny! :)

Thanks all!

I'm leaning toward flash memory.
The flip is a nifty little camera but too low featured for what she wants, I think.
B&H is good. I actually prefer J & R. Every time I check they seem to be a bit cheaper. Both are good stores to deal with, tho.

I'll check out all of your recommendations. Thanks again.

Doug

PS: looks like we're going to add a side trip to China on Dragon!

Doug:

If I had the money, this is one I'd like to have. By the time TUT comes around it should be discounted enough to make me want to buy it.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/597438-REG/Canon_3568B001_VIXIA_HF_S10_Dual.html

Since I have a high school reunion next month and travelling western Nebraska with Penny, then NYC in Sept for a visit and a cruise and then again in Oct. I have invested in the new generation MacBookPro and a new dslr. Am looking forward to putting them to work. My old tape type camcorder will do just fine until my wallet is restocked.

Cheers! Ray

I am still using a point and shoot camera because Doug got sick of me using my iphone. I would just upgrade my iphone to the latest iphone for movies, but that would probably upset Doug too. I found myself taking more moving shots on our safaris than stills and that's what gave us the impression that I would enjoy a camcorder. Doug has the professional camera. I will use it to take moving shots at Paul McCartney concerts, both close up and distance, freeze some shots as pics...take some historical tour guide movies to capture the moment...that sort of thing. I also like fireworks. I never capture those on stills. I like to capture the memories with sounds and action. That's all. I will upload to facebook or something like that. Thanks for all of your help!!

While this is nifty, I try to steer Doug to jewelry. Never really works. I end up buying it for myself usually. :b:

Hey Doug and Andi,
I am not sure wether you want high end or not, but I bought a Panasonic SDR-57 for my Egypt trip, and a friend used it for stills since she broke her camera, and I used it for video of the streets of Cairo at night and was happy with it until I left it in a cab and 30 seconds later It was not in the cab, Anyhow, it has a 10X optical zoom and it has Dolby sound and "DVD quality recording" It takes a SDHC card. Relatively inexpensive, but from Andi's description, it might bear looking into.
Lynn
PS It fits in the palm of your hand, and the screen pivots in multiple directions.

Thanks, everyone for your advice. There's quite a range here.

Doug and Andi, you must tell us what you decided on when you find what you want.
Lynn

Andi, your post was hysterical!

Maybe you need to steer just a little harder toward that jewelry counter.

Doug, I went back and couldn't find what kind of camera you use, so may I ask here?

Hey, Andi what ever works! You got it, Girl!

Doug is really good to me. I am so picky he never buys me jewelry without my being there. He was really good to me for my anniversary. I saw a pair of earrings and went to buy them...and he just bought them for me. But he has more fun buying electronics.

I think Doug uses a Canon EOS. I just got him a big lens like Ken's, so now he can have lots of fun on the safaris.

After discussing this thread and my need to post Utube videos on my blog, Alan just orderd a Panasonic that is a combination party camera (as in small and unobtrusive with a stabilization feature), waterproof for underwater pics and video with upload capability straight to U-tube. We'll be the ones in the room with the bright orange camera.

Pam: I use a Canon XSi (I have no idea what the letters mean)
Canon just introduced the next generation. From what I can read, it is no big step up.... although it has some 15 mega-pickles. The XSi has 12.2.

Donna: I was looking at that camera. the SW-21, right? Cool colors, sturdy housing.... not sure that Andi would like the optical zoom limits, tho. The hunt continues. (the Canon HF 200 seems attractive)
BTW: I like the idea of a strong color. Yes, the bad guys will notice it, but you'll never lose sight of it either!

Doug

Doug, the strong color was Alan's idea. At first I wasn't wild about an orange camera but at least it won't get left behind. I'm going to be using the video part to take small clips, mainly interviews, for my blog so the zoom limits aren't that much of a factor for me. Anyway, it's ordered now. Give a man a gadget to think about and things happen quickly.

Donna:
I like the colors offered on that camera. Just not sure about the zoom limits for Andi. PLEASE let us know what you think of the camera as soon as you play with it.
She does not have the need to upload to YouTube for work as you do.

I may be coming out to Tucson in the very near future. However, I won't tell you when. Don't want you running out of town, again.
(LOL)

Doug