It's time to retire my trusty 8mm tape Camcorder (bought new in 1999).

There seems to be a big price difference in the current offerings from $150 to $450.

My needs are simple:
-i don't want to use tape anymore
-most recordings will be less than an hour (then downloaded then erased)

There is a slim camcorder that looks like a big candy bar (only 60 minutes) and there's the more traditional form that is like big taco (5 hours of recording time)(can you tell i'm hungry right now?).

The question is, since i do not need the long recording time of the taco, can i be happy enough with the candy bar camcorder? are the images just as clear?

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Jennifer
90 350sdl

What camcorder do you have now? Do you want to sell it? Mine broke and I have no way of getting the many hours of my kids growing up that are on those tapes.

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" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

I've been having fun with the tiny $60 camcorder I got at Walmart two weeks ago. It came with an AV cable to connect to a TV or VCR.
On the high-quality setting, it records up to 80 minutes on a 2 GB SD card. Picture quality is acceptable for a cheap camera, but a far cry from my late-'90s 8mm or VHS-C camcorders. Motion is jerky like a cell-phone video (but I kind-of like the effect) and the audio is weak. They had some better ones in the $100 - $200 range, plus the tiny 'candy-bar' unit that only works with a USB-computer hooku, but there's no way to try-before-you-buy when they're sold in those blister-packs.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

it's a Sharp. i can't sell it because i have a shoebox full of tapes that can only go into the camcorder. sorry.

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Jennifer
90 350sdl

I'm sure I can get one somewhere. I just happened to think of it when you brought up 8mm camcorders. I must have 50 video tapes full of (mostly unwatchable crap) of my kids when they were growing up. It's a pain in the butt keeping your stuff on some medium that is currently playable.

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

Time to transfer those recordings to VHS or DVD. I've been copying some of my favorite old Beta tapes before the originals become unwatchable. Some of them have already completely lost the video. And I try to transfer my camcorder recordings ASAP, Even if the tiny tapes are still OK, there's no telling when the camcorder itself could die.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

Yeah, my camcorder bit the dust several years ago.

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

OTOH, I recently picked up a couple working camcorders cheap ($10-$20) at yard sales because people have transferred their videos and moved on to some newer format.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

Jen- I use a Sony which so far has been able to play well with the software I have on my computer. If you can go to Best Buy or someplace where you can actually play with one and make sure it'll work with your computer.

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"It's normal for these things to empty your wallet and break your heart in the process."
2012 SLK 350
1987 420 SEL

I have a new Sony that shots to the hard drive and will work with any computer. Retail around $800. I'll take $300.

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99 ML320
94 SL600
92 SL500
95 E320 Cabriolet
87 560SEC
86 300SDL Grease Car
80 380SLC Euro

13 Fiat Abarth
02 Maserati Spyder Cambiocorsa
00 BMW Z3
90 Rolls Royce Silver Spur
80 Ferrari 308 GTSI
88 Jaguar XJS12 H&E Edition
99 Land Rover Discovery

I purchased a Sony Mini-dv camcorder on the day before the twins were born, and it broke before their second birthday. I know Sony has a good reputation, by my experience with their camcorders is 100% bad, so I decided to get another brand.

After thorough searching on the internet, and decided (again) to stay with mini-dv and to go with Panasonic, and purchased the Panasonic PV-GS65.

Why? Panasonic offers camcorders with three chips (3 ccd) in their consumer line, which in the Sony line will cost you over $1,000 to get a camcorder with 3ccd.

What is 3ccd? from Wikipedia:

Three ccd or 3-ccd is a term used to describe an imaging system employed by some still cameras, video cameras, and camcorders. Three-CCD cameras have three separate charge-coupled devices, each one taking a separate measurement of red, green, and blue light. Light coming into the lens is split by a trichroic prism assembly, which directs the appropriate wavelength ranges of light to their respective CCDs.

Three-CCD cameras are generally superior image quality compared to cameras with only one CCD due to the above reasons. Additionally a one-CCD camera must use a bayer filter and interpolation to 'fill in the gaps' which are two additional sources of image quality loss.

Three-CCD cameras are generally more expensive than single-CCD cameras because they require three times more elements to form the image detector, and because they require a precision color-separation beam-splitter optical assembly.

The concept of cameras using three image pickups, one for each primary color, was first developed for color photography on three glass plates in the late nineteenth century, and in the 1960s through 1980s was the dominant method to record color images in television, as other possibilities to record more than one color on the video camera tube were difficult.

3CCD cameras are also often known "3-chip" or "three-chip" cameras; this term is actually more descriptive and inclusive, since it includes cameras that use CMOS image sensors instead of CCDs.

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Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

Back when I was in television (yes, they had color back then), we shot with Sony Betacams. Big suckers but the benchmark of the industry. When I went freelance, I had a three chip Panny and it was a good camera. With the vast improvements over the past few years, the single chip are about as good. I have a three chip JVC that does a good job also. In fact, I have to many cameras. I've never used the Sony that I mentioned earlier.

__________________
99 ML320
94 SL600
92 SL500
95 E320 Cabriolet
87 560SEC
86 300SDL Grease Car
80 380SLC Euro

13 Fiat Abarth
02 Maserati Spyder Cambiocorsa
00 BMW Z3
90 Rolls Royce Silver Spur
80 Ferrari 308 GTSI
88 Jaguar XJS12 H&E Edition
99 Land Rover Discovery

One thing about the smaller cameras is that they are harder to hold steady when using them handheld. Pay attention to how steady you are able to hold a camera when you try them out (I suggest going to an electronics store to at least look at them, even if you will be ordering online).

Generally, the ones that shoot to memory stick and the ones that shoot to hard drive have similar or the same type of video compression, so the image quality of the format should be similar.

As someone else mentioned, 3CCD vs 1CCD is an issue in the way the camera will handle low light situations and richness of color, but there are also new CMOS cameras which are 1 chip but superior in image quality to ordinary 1 CCD cameras, but still not as good as their 3CCD competitors.

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I have the munchies now.......

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Sent from an agnostic abacus

2014 C250 21,XXX my new DD ** 2013 GLK 350 18,000 Wife's new DD**

- With out god, life is everything.
- God is an ever receding pocket of scientific ignorance that's getting smaller and smaller as time moves on..." Neil DeGrasse Tyson
- You can pray for me, I'll think for you.
- When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.