Choosing a new camcorder - buyers guides for my price range?

[plnelson]

My old Canon HV20 has died and gone to camcorder heaven. I want to take a step up from that to something better.

I want image quality, build quality, lots of control over settings. I especially want control over focusing - focus regions, speed of autofocus, focus behaviour when tracking moving subjects, etc.

The MAIN use for this will be model and dance photography - see my website at pnArt.com, especially the last few galleries to get an idea of my still photography - I want to start adding motion to those subjects. But I'll probably also take the camera with my when I travel, so it should be good outside the studio, too.

My price range is $1500-$2000.

Are there any good buyers guides for that price range so I know what to look for, what questions to ask and what to expect?

Thanks in advance!

[turk690]

camcorderinfo.com, though their review format seems to have changed from thorough and often hair-splitting to general and kvetchy?

[plnelson]

camcorderinfo.com, though their review format seems to have changed from thorough and often hair-splitting to general and kvetchy?

I didn't see any buyers guides there, just product reviews.

And unfortunately they didn't have many reviews in that price range. They list 4 cameras in that range. 2 of the 4 actually sell in the high $1400's, and the other two are niche products - one has a built in video projector and the other is designed to shoot in "ultra 4K format (and doesn't actually have a review, just a list of specifications).

Two of the cameras I'm considering are the Canon XA20 and the Panasonic AC90. I'm surprised I'm having a hard time finding direct head-to-head reviews of two cameras which would appear to be pretty direct competitors price and feature wise. The closest I could find were some low-light comparisons.

[turk690]

Best then to probably see what users themselves have to say about their actual experiences regarding these camcorders at bhphotovideo.com.

[aedipuss]

if you've got a canon dslr for stills and decent lenses maybe a new body like the 70d with good quality silent autofocus while shooting or the 5diii which is still a gold standard for video. takes some learning but the video produced can be outstanding.

some nikons are also worth looking into.

[plnelson]

if you've got a canon dslr for stills and decent lenses maybe a new body like the 70d with good quality silent autofocus while shooting or the 5diii which is still a gold standard for video. takes some learning but the video produced can be outstanding.

some nikons are also worth looking into.

The ergonomics for shooting video with a DSLR suck, regardless of how good the video quality is. You just can't hold them and view through them they way you can with a good camcorder. They also don't have the audio capability, recording times, and 5-axis image stabilization found on decent camcorders. I have 3 Nikon bodies and a dozen lenses and I've taken some decent movies with my D800 but the workflow and ergonomics don't hold a candle to a dedicated camcorder.

So are you saying there are no buyers guides for cameras in this price range? Or head-to-head comparisons?

[sanlyn]

What do you mean by buyers' guides? They're all over the web, on newsstands. and book stores. If all you want are some charts showing which cameras have how many buttons, rather than a report of image quality and ease of use, then your buyer's guide is the advertising in product descriptions and on the backs and sides of the boxes in stores. Otherwise, have you heard of this handy search tool called "Google"?

http://camcorders.reviewed.com/ratings.htm
http://www.digitaltrends.com/camcorder-reviews/
Then there are user reviews from sources like BHPhoto and Amazon, that is if you can find reviews by picky users with some video expertise who know what they're talking about. The camcorder sections of video technical forums are another source. You seem to know at least more than the average user who just wants to know which buttons to push. I wouldn't be so useful myself, as I won't touch a camera that doesn't have a Canon lens on it.

What is it about the hundreds of buyers' guides on the web and newsstands that you find unsatisfactory, and what specific kinds of information are you looking for, other than price and manual controls?

[plnelson]

What do you mean by buyers' guides?

I want to know what distinguishes camcorders in that price range, and what questions I should be asking or what pitfalls I should be aware of for buying cameras in that price range. I don't want to get the camera home and out of the box and THEN say to myself, 'Oh, I wish I knew to ask about this or look into that!'. Before I spend $1999 on a camera I want to make sure my checklist of questions is complete, and that I have realistic expectations for what a $1999 can and cannot be expected to do.

What is it about the hundreds of buyers' guides on the web and newsstands that you find unsatisfactory?

Two cameras I'm looking at are the Canon XA20 and the Panasonic AC90. I couldn't find either one of those in either of the two links you provided. And what I haven't been able to find anywhere are head-to-head comparisons of them.

In DSLR still cameras there are sites that do detailed technical reviews in a format that allow direct comparisons between competing models and brands. For example DPReview (www.dpreview.com) They do very long detailed reviews of everything from consumer point-and-shoots to professional full-format DSLR bodies. For example, here's their review of the Canon 70D, an inexpensive prosumer DSLR that costs a little over half of what I'm planning to spend on a camcorder. http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canon-eos-70d - it's 20 pages long and look at the detail in it. And you can take that review and look up other bodies by Canon or Nikon or whoever and compare them directly.

I'm looking for something of that caliber for camcorders.