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What's a good camcorder under $200?

Whats the difference between a $200 HD camcorder and a $2,000 HD camcorder besides features?

  • , bcuz if they both give 1280x720 resolution and there both HD does that mean it will be both the same quality since they both say HD camcorder???????????????????? im seriously confused.!! helppppp. need a perfect camera for my niece shes soooooo special to me.

  • Answer:

    Video quality and the user's control over it are HUGE differences. On a $200 camcorder, expect little to no manual zoom (specifically optical zoom) or focus. Expect highly compressed formats like MP4 and things like that. Expect a low-quality image processor. On a $2,000 camcorder, expect higher-quality, less-compressed, more standard formats such as HDV. Expect greater control over how your image looks, with manual focus and zoom, white balance, exposure, shutter, and so forth. Expect to be able to plug in an external microphone. Expect a bigger, better lens. In short, the more features the camera has related to image control, the better the quality of video you'll be able to put together. The question is, which features and quality are acceptable to you? I work in video professionally, so I like as much manual control as possible. I've chosen the Canon HV30 as my home video camera for its features, quality, and its compatibility with most editing programs. I like being able to use tape because I don't have to back it up to continue recording, I just use a new tape, and tape is fairly inexpensive. For many who just want to be able to record something basic and look back at it, cameras in the "Flip Video" series work fine. It's all about your needs and how much they're worth to you. Look at reviews on sites like CNet, watch sample videos, and if you can, go try some out in stores to see what you like. What do you anticipate your niece's needs to be? How serious a video hobbyist is she, how much does she like to experiment with technical things? This is similar to the decisions in getting a still camera - do you go with a foolproof point-and-shoot camera with few options, or do you go with an SLR camera with more controls? Similar decisions are in play here.

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if you are taking a video of paint drying, then all consumer HD cameras will do a good job. the biggest failing of the $200 cameras is the lens. first, it is fixed, it doesn't zoom, or the "zoom" is electronic using just the center of the CCD imager or it may zoom but not while recording when you need it. Second is no optical stabilization. The way consumer HD works is the frame rate is only 4 frames per second, if there is any unnecessary camera movement, the time compression encoding will be very poor, like 16x16 mega blocks. Suddenly your HD picture looks like it came from a Fisher-Price Pixel 2000 children's camcorder. The very design of cheapo cameras is flawed, they are simply still photo cameras with software added to capture "video" and they are very difficult to hold steady. High quality stereo audio might be good to go with the HD picture. If you spend $200 then the lack of "features" will become quite noticable because it is those features that make it a real camcorder.

lare

The difference is quality. Those cheap cameras are junk.

$2,000 HD camcorder use better lens, better features.If you want High video quality $2,000 HD camcorder will provide you far better than $200 HD.You get what you pay.

Pole

If she is just going to film vacations and things in that sort you should spend in the 200-750 dollar range. If shes doing full films Short films and things like that then 2000-5000 dollars.

Pete

The 200 bucks HD cameras are junk. Look for a nice 600-1000 dollar HD camcorder.

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