Hint for deciding on a camcorder

[renshaw8]

If you want to "see" the quality of the different camcorders, try searching the specific camcorder at YouTube and adding "test'.

[gadgetguy]

You're kidding right? I would never judge a camera by anything on YouTube. You have no way of knowing what encoder settings were used to compress it for upload and YouTube re-encodes everything so it's hardly the best representation of a camera's capabilities.

[guns1inger]

If you want to "see" the quality of the different camcorders, try searching the specific camcorder at YouTube and adding "test'.

You might as well add "best" instead. The results will of about the same value.

[lordsmurf]

No.

[renshaw8]

Not knowing anything about the quality of the videos of different camcorders, YouTube was a big help in deciding on my Canon Vixia HG20. I checked out many, many videos on Sony's and others for days before arriving at the decision for my Canon. I could tell that the Sony's didn't have the all around focus (near objects and far objects) as the Canon's. I noticed that a lot of people here are baffled when it comes to choosing a camcorder and was just trying to help. Like me, a lot of people here probably aren't as knowledgeable as you guys. I don't think I could have done better than my HG20 for $599.

[filmboss80]

Nice to know you're happy with your purchase, renshaw8. By the way, what are you using to edit your footage? And how does the final output look on disc?

[renshaw8]

Filmboss80, I either use Handbrake to convert the MTS to MP4 or AVI using the AppleTV preset which looks very good or I have Sony Vegas to do some editing. Handbrake actually renders much better videos then Sony Vegas so far with much smaller files but no ability to edit. I have 2 TB hard drive so I haven't burned anything to a disk yet.

[fitch.j]

I could tell that the Sony's didn't have the all around focus (near objects and far objects) as the Canon's.

Not trying to say you made a wrong choice as you are obviously very happy which is all that matters However this is down to how you film, you can easily make the focus depth very large or very small on any camera by filming it how you want to.