Good Starting Camera and/or Capture Card

[Dougtron]

I'm looking for a good video camera to just start out with. I don't need anything really fancy just something relatively cheap that I can get a good picture wuality with and then get it onto my computer either through the camera itself or with a video capture card. From what I've seen I think I for a cheaper price I can get better video quality from an analog camera and then just get it on my PC with a capture card than I would from a digital camera of the same price. I'm going to be using this for filming school projects and low end movies. Thanks for any help.

[redwudz]

AFAIK, It's doubtful that you will get a better video quality with an analog output to the computer. A consumer DV camera stores the video in digital format, then converts to analog for composite out. When you capture it with a video card you are converting back to digital again. If you use DV in through a firewire card, no conversions.

Of course this all depends on the camcorder. The typical consumer camcorder is made for DV output. The analog output is more commonly used to view the camera video directly on a TV.

[Dougtron]

Right now I'm looking at the SONY DCR-TRV280 Digital Camcorder. Could anyone tell me if this is a good camera and any other suggestions? I'm really just looking for a good camera around $300 or $350 at max that I can capture good enough picture for editing amateur films.

[I_am_stealth]

Right now I'm looking at the SONY DCR-TRV280 Digital Camcorder. Could anyone tell me if this is a good camera and any other suggestions?

It is a decent camcorder. From this camcorder you will be able to tranfer your video to a computer with a firewire cable. This means no quality loss, and no need for an aditional card. If you have a dvd writer you could encode then to mpeg2 or xvid -the second one to be played usualy only on computers.

Sony's are generally best for filming in low light and complete darkness.
I personally think it is usefull to have a decent optical zoom on the camcorder therefore you should look for something around 20x. (like the one you found). At a low price, only DIGTAL 8 camcorders have large optical zooms.
There are also older models that have similar characteristics. I used pal models but i know that sometimes they have a similar NTSC model ( the pal model sometimes has an e after the number) 270, 325 , 240, 245 255 etc etc.(this sort of numbers - they are all digital 8 if i am not wrong)

Also if it has usb streaming you could use it as webcam.

[Dougtron]

I looked around a bit and I think I"m willing to pay the extra money for this camera. How much better is it?

[edDV]

Right now I'm looking at the SONY DCR-TRV280 Digital Camcorder. Could anyone tell me if this is a good camera and any other suggestions? I'm really just looking for a good camera around $300 or $350 at max that I can capture good enough picture for editing amateur films.

Its a good camcoder and DV (Digital8 and MiniDV) models are better than anything analog as a recording system. The "corder" half of the camcorder is very high quality. The "cam" half scales by money spent from $~200 for low end consumer to ~$2000 for Prosumer to $12-70K for pro models.

Digital8 is good if you have already have a collection of 8mm or Hi8 material but the model you spec'd won't play those. You need to move up. Another key feature on the next model up is "analog pass through" that allows the camcorder to act as an analog to DV capture card.

Check reviews here
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Sony-DCR-TRV280-Camcorder-Review.htm
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/specs/Sony--DCR-TRV350.htm
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Sony-DCR-TRV480-Camcorder-Review.htm

If ability to play 8mm or Hi8 tapes isn't a priority, look to a low end MiniDv model.

If this is just a starter camcorder, you can save a bundle on ebay or craigslist by buying a used model.