What kind of camcorder should I buy?

What kind of camcorder should i buy?

• ok, im interested in becoming a film maker. i need something very user friendly since i've never even hold a camcorder before. and also something inexpensive. just something you can make a short film with like a documentary. good quality of course....better if you can tell me the model i should buy thanks

• Answer:

  you can get a couple of high def cams(hd) for a reasonable price. oi would steer clear of standard def though as its dying out fast. i would go with 3 ccd using mini dv. look for separate balanced audio input (would probably be a 3.5mm jack in) look for a cam that has 'fire wire' plug. this is best for importing and export video in real time. there are a few disadvantages with hdd, flash and dvd. mini dv is better than all of these as it's better compression quality. however, flash card units are becoming cheap and still look good. I think this would be my second choice apart from mini dv. look for: 16:9 widescreen 3ccd or cmos if possible (but not likely with the cheapos) external mic inputs (3.5 minimum of preferred XLR) mini dv (still better than HDD, Flash and aweful DVD) seperate audio controls a bonus shutter, iris controls etc a must. if going with HDV (hi def) find one that does HDMI out. it'll look fantastic on big screen. hope it helps!