Newbie needs a new Video Camera

[KilrB]

I am just getting into video and am about to purchase a new Video camera.

At the moment I am looking at the either the Sony TRV140 for $500

Or the Sony TRV240 for $600

The TRV240 has a Video/Audio in and an accessory shoe(What ever the heck that is?) and 700X digital zoom. The the 140 only has video/audio out and no shoe and 560 Digital zoom.

I have an ASUS GF3 Deluxe for video in and capture and was going to use Ulead DVD Movie Factory. I only have USB for inputs and running WinXP Pro. The rest of the system consists of an MSI KT7266Pro2 VIA KT266a motherboard 1.33GHz T-Bird 256MB RAM Santa Cruz Turtle Beach and a IBM 60GB 60GXP HD.

Mostly this will be for home video's of the kids and such.

I am just wondering if I should spend the extra cash for Video In a shoe and 700X zoom? Video in is pretty much self explanitory but I just cannot see where I might use it. I have never owned any video camera before and not sure what the advatages are.

Any input is appriciated.

Thanks

[KilrB]

Ummmm.... Nobody here has a video camera? Or any type of input tward this subject? :-?

[mol3000]

i was looking at this one ....... http://www.sonystyle.com/digitalimaging/F_MV.shtml

just because its small, fits in your pocket and easy to sneak in the movies

[bugster]

I have a Sony PC100e and its great. It has Firewire in/out so I can edit my films on the PC. It also has Composite and s-video in/out for TV playback or recording from an analog source to Digital Video format which means it can also be used as an excellent capture device. Just capture your old analog recordings to DV tape and then use Firewire to transfer them to the PC for editing and/or recompression.

The accessory shoe allows the camera to accept a number of Sony accessories, mostly lights. I have a combined flash/video light (flash needed as the camera also takes stills which are stored on a memory stick).

Hope this helps

[druss2001]

I have the Sony 240 that you mentioned. I am running Athlon 1.3 with 512 MB Ram. I have a 60 GB 7200 RPM drive just for the video capture, otherwise my normal system files are on a 40 GB 72000 RPM drive. I have WinXP and I am currently working on transferring VHS tapes to VCD. I have my VCR hooked to the DV and the DV connected to the PC using a FireWire card.

I have tried Adobe Premiere, Video Vegas, and other programs and I can only get Premiere to actually work properly for the capture of the DV stream, only after a very long and frustrating week of trial and error. Every other program would start the tape in the DV Camera while capturing, this is not what I wanted. The DV Camera is being used to convert the analog from the VCR to DV and then send it through to the computer via the FireWire.

I have not had my camera long (about 3 weeks). I like it. I have not owned any other cameras.

I chose this camera for the optical zoom of 25x and the digital zoom of 700x. It also has the super night vision. It seems that between the 120 and the 240, the 240 has more features included with it. You may want to check if the 120 is actually DV. The shoe is for adding various accessories (mostly lights) but you can add a mic or other things. There is also a S-video connection.

Dave

[kman1011]

I have a 530 with about 30 hours on it that I am going to sell if you want? But really the 240 is definetly a nice camera.