best DV cam?

[dvnoob]

Looking for your expert opinions or recommendations for a DV camcorder, keeping high quality in mind, for around 800-1200$ THANKS !!

[lordsmurf]

Canon

[dvnoob]

CANNON !?!!?

what model?

[Jester700]

It depends on your priorities. If it were me, low light performance is important, so... probably a used Sony TRV-900 or Panasonic PVGS400. For a few bucks more, a used Sony VX2000.

[dvnoob]

actually, whats important to me is sporting activities mostly, football and hockey games. not too much indoors stuff. does that change your opinion? thanks again!

[TwistedLincoln]

I'm a bit confused as to how this is "latest news"...?

[drewzor]

I have had alot of fun with my sony hc-90..
It records anamorphic widescreen and has a hot shoe for gun mic's surround channel mic's and other attachments

It records 50/60fps interlaced..

[slacker]

Depending on the quality you are looking for, you don't necessarily have to spend $800-$1200 on a camcorder. I do a lot of sports as well, primarily for the benefit of the coaches and the team members' families. Two things that were important to me besides the obvious which have to do with framing scenes were zoom and widescreen capability. So for this year...

I went with the Canon Elura 100 ($350). It has a 20x zoom and widescreen capability. Over at camcorderinfo.com it is ranked the best in its class. Now I won't lie to you. You get what you pay for. I came from and still own a Canon Optura 500 which at initial release cost roughly $1000. However, the Optura had its own set of issues for sports. The video quality was slightly better than the Elura 100 but the audio was a total disaster because of where they placed the microphone.

Personally, I wouldn't waste big money in this field until the powers that be and consumers as a whole make some decisions as to where the industry really should be going. There is no momentum. When everyone gets their act together with HD and I know which way the wind is blowing, I will purchase a HD camcorder, but not until then. If you need it now, I don't think you can go wrong purchasing the Sony HDR-HC3 HDV camcorder. Very nice for $1000.

Coincidentally, I'm doing a football game tomorrow. Don't forget the tripod, an extra battery, extra tapes and 50' of electrical cord!!!

[dvnoob]

slacker,

thanks for the input, I read about that model before and i read some reviews about the Sony TRV-900 that was suggested by jester. The thing is that i do need it now, my son is growing up and his first game is tomorrow as well. i can't wait for the "powers to be" otherwise i would wait till i die. both the trv and hc3(1) got fantastic reviews. i guess it may come down to speaking with someone at the store or online when it comes to actually buying it. there are so many models at all the pricepoints, which is annoying to someone who doesn't keep up with the times.

as for twisted, since we started mentioning the state of todays opinion in the further development of HD video, it seems to me that it qualifies for "latest news"....

as usual, have a nice day!, but thats only in writing and not really what i am thinking.

[mats.hogberg]

@dvnoob: Don't post in the NEWS forum if it's not news.
As a general rule, read the stickie(s) in each forum before posting in it.

/Mats
Moderator