Looking For A Decent Camcorder Under 200$

[DJboutit]

I am looking for a decent camcorder for uder 200$ that can be hooked up to computer to dump videos need something that shoots decent quality videos what do yall recommond

[zoobie]

new? used? format?
www.camcorderinfo.com & craig's list

[DJboutit]

I am looking for something new

[orsetto]

If by "dumping videos to a computer" you mean you want a camcorder that rapidly transfers digital files for easy editing, there's nothing much selling at under $200. At that price, and brand new, your options are an old-school MiniDV tape camcorder or a new-school memory stick camcorder. Neither is ideal if you want to play with video on a computer. The cheap memory stick camcorders rely on a disgusting and near-unusable format thats a giant pain in the ass to work with on computers, and a lot of people can't even get the damn things to offload. If you do manage to get it onto your computer, you'll be stuck with an as-is video you can't do much of anything with, because software that creates DiVX, AVI or DVD transfers can't make heads or tails of this bastard ultra-compressed format, and its a bitch to edit. The only other option is a MiniDV tape-based camcorder. These are really under-rated right now because tape is considered so "yesterday", but thats a silly argument against otherwise-solid technology thats now very affordable. The MiniDV tape format records standard DV/AVI video which any computer or software can work with easily. The only drawback to tape is that downloads can't be quick, they transfer in real time from the camcorder. If you can live with that, there are some decent tape camcorders still on the market.

I suspect what you really want is a cheapskate version of hard-drive or Mini-DVD-disc camcorders. But this you will not find under $200, at least not yet. Standard-format video files streamed off the camera as high-speed digital data transfer to a computer still costs a significant piece of change.

[MJA]

check the Canon ZR-930

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-ZR930-1-07MP-Camcorder-Optical/dp/B00114163O

930 has an external mic jack 950 doesn't

[lordsmurf]

Canon ZR series, good for shooting video as DV. Don't expect to do anything else with it.

[MJA]

Samsung SC-MX20 Flash Memory Camcorder $199

I'm not a fan of flash/hard drive storage + night shots isn't going to look good(on any budget cam)

http://techbargains.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=88718371/search=sc-mx...oduct/sv=title

[Mad Genius]

I agree wholeheartedly with Orsetto about those slim-type jobbies [to call them camcorders is a farce], not only because of the non-standard video format, but primarily because of bad picture quality with equally bad sound and most importantly, a choppy frame rate, which I'm sure you wouldn't be interested in.