How good are those mini-camcorders?

[thamws]

Anyone has experience with those mini-camcorder using flash memories instead of miniDV tapes? For example, like Ranger's DVGenius, how good are they compared to the normal miniDV camcorders in producing decent home-made video? They are attractive in their size, although their zoom range is nothing compared to a normal miniDV or DVD camcorder.

 

[thamws]

Really nobody has any experience with this kind of camcorder? That speaks volume for its appeal, and probably its image quality.

 

[jaegersing]

Maybe you buy one and then let us all know what it's like?

No, just joking. These are usually very low cost, and so have cheap lenses. Then they use heavy compression to fit the video onto a flash card. I haven't used one, but don't see how they can be much good compared to a "real" videocam with good glass and 13GB of storage per tape.

 

[thamws]

Yes, considering their low prices, shouldn't expect it to be anything comparable to those DV camcorders. Just wondering if the video quality will be adequate for home video? Or even some travel video just for memory sake. Now, I tend to travel with a DV camcorder and a digital still. Troublesome to operate both. If camcorder size can be reduced, then my still cam size can increase.

 

[jaegersing]

Only you can say if it is adequate for you. Anyway, if you plan to edit your videos, make sure that you get a camera which records in a format you can actually edit. (And if you don't edit your videos, the format is not that important because nobody will watch them anyway. )

 

[tommon]

Panasonic HVX 200 uses PCMCIA P2 cards. Very expensive ($2k) and only 30 minutes on 8Gb P2 Card in full HD format.

 

[lwm]

If really want small size, use the digi cam or even handphone to take loh I find some of the digicam 640x480 mode quite decent (of course cannot compare with miniDV). But no matter what, a lousy video is still better than no video.

 

[thamws]

If really want small size, use the digi cam or even handphone to take loh I find some of the digicam 640x480 mode quite decent (of course cannot compare with miniDV). But no matter what, a lousy video is still better than no video.

Yeah, what I need is just some homemade video, no need high quality. With digi-cam, avi format will consume memory very fast, although memory is quite cheap now. For those that record in MP4 format, do you know if it's editable, like avi?