not sure about topic-- Is this camera any good; pinnacle ?'s

[Duckman7337]

I am just getting into this whole digital video thing and i was wondering if this camera is any good- http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=48514&item=3874049826&rd=1 its a Mitsuba. ive never herd of them but im looking for a decent camera to get myself started with making a car racing dvd and i have about 250$ to spend. please help me out. also it says it uses dv5 format. Does anyone know if Pinnacle 9 plus is compatible or uses this format? thanks.
also could i get some opinions on these cameras:
JVChttp://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=20331&item=3874047201&rd=1
Panasonic http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=20332&item=3874066565&rd=1

[jday]

Your first choice, the Mitsuba, is not what you want if you want to capture video and create a dvd. Based on the link you provided, this appears to be mainly a digital still camera that also shoots low resolution video (Digital Video (QVGA 320 x 240) 10 fps). A true video camcorder resolution is 720x480 and NTSC standard is 29.97 fps (frames per second).

However, both the JVC and Panasonic cameras are miniDV camcorders. For consumer video editing IMHO miniDV is the best digital format. It captures in DV AVI at the full 29.97 fps. I don't have any personal knowledge of either of these models, but the Panasonic appears to be the better of the two from a quick look. I hope this helps.

[kisrum]

I'm no expert, but 2x optical zoom is not very exciting. 2x digital zoom isn't either. This may be okay for a business documenting work or flood damage, but if you want to film the kids playing soccer or something, it won't do you much good.

Do a forum search or check the guides for some recommendations, maybe. Seems like there's some 10x optical zooms which are reasonably priced, and maybe even some 18x optical zooms for a decent price. Don't let fabulous claims about digital zoom fool you either. 24x digital is tolerable, but anything beyond that gets pretty fuzzy in this price range.

Don't know anything about Mitsuba. Good luck.

Edit: Whoops, didn't look at all the links. Panasonic 22x optical seems pretty nice. I have a 6-year-old Panasonic that still functions w/o problems. Only problem is it doesn't have a digital pass-through. Don't know if the new ones do.

[Duckman7337]

thanks

[kisrum]

If Pinnacle 9 is free, then it's always worth a try. Many people on this forum have a difficult time with it. Pinnacle 8 has been a headache for me, but it was free with my video card. Don't use it much, now.