Does anyone have a
Moms View Message Board: General Discussion: Archive September 2004:
Does anyone have a
DVD Camcorder? If so, what type do you have and is it good? Do the videos come out good? How are the still pictures that you can take with it come out?
DH and I are thinking of getting one. It will be our Christmas present to eachother.
We have a Sony DCR-TRV27. Got a couple yrs ago. I am sure they have improved more now... I love it. We use a Nikon Digital camera mostly for our still digital pic's-- they still come out better than the ones on the DV Camcorder. Of course my favorite still pics are still the ones taken with the 35 mm camera! lol Call me old fashioned.
I use it alot at ds ballgames, video baby riding his bike without training wheels for first time, christmas, easter, birthday parties, skating rink, video each other water skiing and wakeboarding, took it to amusement park. We use it ALL the time. Well worth the money. The only thing we were sorry about--was that we didnt buy it SOONER.  I am not great at videoing tho. I tend to forget I am videoing at the ball games and start jumping up and down screaming for my ds's. It would be better if I would haul the tripod around with me.
Have fun shopping for one!
We just bought one a few months ago and are very pleased. What we did, as we didn't have a clue what to get, was go to Best Buy and have them explain all the pros/cons of the different cameras. We basically told the guy what we wanted it for and what we didn't care about. He then pointed us in the direction of the one he thought would best suit our needs. We were extremely pleased with his expertise and help! Good luck finding one.
I assume you really meant "DVD camcorder" and not "DV camcorder"
We have the Sony DCR-DVD301 DVD camcorder for about 8 months.
Overall I'm pretty pleased with it. Would I buy it again..not so sure.
You can play the DVD's in your DVD player (if you record it in the correct "mode".
The Video quality is "good". The Video quality is not as good as a conventional DV camcorder but makes up for it with some of the whiz bang features.
The Still picture quality is poor to fair. It's only about 1.2 M pixels. Any $100-$200 digital camera can do better. If you don't have a digital camera already, this shouldn't be the reason to buy this camera.
The things I like best:
The built in editing features let you "edit out" things (like accidently leaving the camcorder recording) right on the camcorder!
It comes with editing software that you can use to edit the videos on your PC.
I took some footage from last Christmas an authored a nice Holiday DVD with music. Neat.
In the highest picture quality mode you can record about 20 minutes per small DVD (about the size of a 3 1/2" floppy and about $10)
I had thought that the small recording capacity would be an issue but it hasn't. Most events I record are shorter than that and it makes it convenient to have "one event" per disc.
The unit is significantly larger and heavier than most DV camcorders. Not a problem for me, but you would definately notice the weight in your purse.
For a gadget freak like me, I've been enjoying the features and using it with the computer. The camera feature is OK to grab a quick shot.
This is a first generation product. Later versions will probably be lighter and have more recording capacity.
At about $900 it's a bit expensive. You can get comparable (or superior) picture quality in a conventional DV camcorder for about $500 (but without the whizbang).
If you're a gadget freak who can afford it, I say buy it. You'll spend hours exploring this gadget.
Get the DVD-R/W discs instead of the DVD-R.
If you just want to good quality videos of your family and don't really care about having the latest tech, buy a Sony conventional mini-DV camcorder (avoid the micro-DV and 8mm models).
What's the difference between a dvd and dv recorder? I'm not that bright when it comes to gadgets.
We do have a digital camera, so I wouldn't really need it for still shots.
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