video cameras

[thurlow]

Hey guys, new to the board, 'though I've been checking you out for a month or so.  Hung out on Yesterday's Tractors for 7 or 8 years, but kinda got burned out and looking for a new home.  Tried Woodnet Forum, but they tend to be a little "prickly" for me.  Sixty-one year old retired farmer;  have had M-14 Foley for about 20 years;  do a little woodworking, metal working, etc.   Anyway...............looking to buy a digital video camera (old one is 18 year old Panasonic, still works good, but it's a dinosaur).  Rather have something with a removable disk/card; auto-focus; an hour or better recording time;  $300-500 range.  Any advice?   There's so much information/technical talk on the camera forums that I get lost.........................

[Modat22]

IMO the higher end Canon and the new NIkkon digital slr are king.

I'm not sure of the Nikons cost but the higher end cannon is around 400 +/_

[wesdor]

I bought a Canon ZR85 18 months ago and have been very happy with it. 

Some thoughts for you.  When you say removable disk/card - are you referring to makig still photos or burning directly to a DVD? I don't use the still photo function of the camera, since I prefer the higher resolution of a dedicated digital still camera.

I do a lot of video editing on the computer and find the firewire out on the ZR85 works fine for me.  Cost of the camera should be about in your price range, although they offer other models with more bells and whistles.  I was just looking for a small, light weight camera that would allow me to do digital video.

Hope my thoughts are helpful for you.

[thurlow]

Just want something that will let me play on TV (or burn to DVD) without jumping thru a lot of hoops.  Don't really know if that's out there???????  Have decent digital PHOTO  camera;  the new one will be strictly for "moving" images................

[Jeff]

Hey thurlow welcome to the forum. Can't help you on a vid camera, but can assure you that the fine folks here on the forum will do their best to make you feel right at home.