A camcorder with an automatic time-and-date stamp?

[camnewb]

Hi,

I'm in the UK and does anyone know of a mid-priced (200 pounds approx.) camcorder that can put a time-and-date stamp automatically on videos and photos? The stamp would be one of the camcorder's settings. I also need a media player (VLC?) that can display this stamp when the transferred footage is played on a PC, and when stills from the video are printed. I don't want to do any other editing of the footage or photos.

I'm replacing my old Panasonic camcorder (made in about 2014) that had this stamp feature, but I never transferred any footage to a PC. A recent model JVC camcorder has this stamp feature, but it doesn't seem to be universal among other brands. A camcorder retailer I asked didn't know whether the stamp was a feature of any of their cheaper Sony models, and the stamp wasn't mentioned in the online instruction manual for two of these models.

Thanks in advance for any information, which I couldn't find when I searched this section of the forum.

[Cornucopia]

I'm gonna go out on a fairly sturdy limb here and say, "any and all" camcorders can do this feature.
It's just such a basic feature, that it isn't mentioned anymore.
I've certainly never encountered one that couldn't, and I've used a variety.

But when you say timestamp, are you referring to ONSCREEN? Because if you do this, it isn't removeable.

Alternately, you could do this judiciously in post based on rendering visually the embedded metadata (which this metadata feature is common to file-based recorders from the last 8-10 years, if not necessarily further).

Scott

[camnewb]

Hi Scott,

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I was referring to having the time / date stamp onscreen on my camcorder, and then having it onscreen on my PC when I view the transferred video footage.

I'll assume that all camcorders have the time / date stamp setting, so I won't need to do your alternative with the embedded metadata.

I only need the basic video / photo functions, and the quality of recent mid-priced camcorders from Sony, Panasonic, and JVC seems to be similar, according to Trusted Reviews and Expert Reviews. But Sony's low-light Exmoor sensor seems to be an impressive feature. Are there any brands with mid-priced models that have consistently high ratings, or ones with well-know failure rates?


Thanks.

[creakndale]

camnewb,
A decade ago, I wanted to do the same thing with video footage from my Canon HF200 camcorder. There were a handful of programs which claimed to be able to pull the date/time Metadata and allow incorporation into a Video Editor. None of them worked for my Canon's file format so I gave up.

You might want to check out this thread:
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/335788-Time-Date-Subtitle-File-Generator-%28-srt%2...sters-Required

creakndale

[camnewb]

camnewb,
A decade ago, I wanted to do the same thing with video footage from my Canon HF200 camcorder. There were a handful of programs which claimed to be able to pull the date/time Metadata and allow incorporation into a Video Editor. None of them worked for my Canon's file format so I gave up.

You might want to check out this thread:
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/335788-Time-Date-Subtitle-File-Generator-%28-srt%2...sters-Required

creakndale

creakndale,

Thanks for the link and I'll look at that method if necessary. I'm hoping that my new camcorder (when I decide on one) will have a built-in time / date stamp, as per Cornucopia's message.


camnewb