wheeljoust
New Member
Just back from US and was amazed at the huge price differential between camcorders there and in SG.
Thought I'd post and share in case there are others deliberating whether or not to take the plunge as well.
I bought a Panasonic HDC-TM90 there for US$419 and 2 x 16GB PNY brand SDHC (class 10) cards at US$ 31 each , spare battery VW-VBK180 for US$69.
Total came up to US$550 plus 5% tax. I believe a similarly spec-ed model here would easily cost upwards of S$1,300 - more than twice what I paid.
Before I decided to bite the bullet, I had considered what I had read about the concerns over NTSC vs PAL system, warranty etc.
I can confirm that NTSC is not an issue for me as all my displays at home at at my relations are multi-system equipped. Also, iMovie '11 handles iFrameediting well. As for AVHCD conversion, Emicsoft MTS converter does the job fabulously.
I guess the only concern for me is that of warranty. But that is somewhat buffered by the fact that its a 16Gb Flash memory + SD card unit, so theoretically no moving parts...besides, none of the 4 camcorders I had previously ever broke down in the 1st year....nonetheless, still keeping fingers crossed.
Thought I'd post and share in case there are others deliberating whether or not to take the plunge as well.
I bought a Panasonic HDC-TM90 there for US$419 and 2 x 16GB PNY brand SDHC (class 10) cards at US$ 31 each , spare battery VW-VBK180 for US$69.
Total came up to US$550 plus 5% tax. I believe a similarly spec-ed model here would easily cost upwards of S$1,300 - more than twice what I paid.
Before I decided to bite the bullet, I had considered what I had read about the concerns over NTSC vs PAL system, warranty etc.
I can confirm that NTSC is not an issue for me as all my displays at home at at my relations are multi-system equipped. Also, iMovie '11 handles iFrameediting well. As for AVHCD conversion, Emicsoft MTS converter does the job fabulously.
I guess the only concern for me is that of warranty. But that is somewhat buffered by the fact that its a 16Gb Flash memory + SD card unit, so theoretically no moving parts...besides, none of the 4 camcorders I had previously ever broke down in the 1st year....nonetheless, still keeping fingers crossed.
