Looking for a new SD consumer cam $300 max

E

EmeraldICE

Member
Hey everyone, I'm looking for a consumer camera (preferably one that uses flash memory and is light weight) that can be used for simple home videos. I'm tired of lugging around my pro camera to film every day things. Basically I'm looking for something that can be easily brought with me everywhere.
I'm posting this in the Canon section because I primarily use Canon cameras and have been looking at the FS200 or FS20. My girlfriend and I went to go look at the FS20 today and we really liked the style, weight, and ease of use of it, but I was wondering if there was anything out there better for the price. I've also read that the FS20/200 record in a very weird format, so I guess I will also have to figure out how to convert the videos into something easily editable.

Does anyone have any ideas of a good consumer cam for us? :)
 
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I don't know much about the current sd consumer cams, but there are some oldies that you can pick up for really cheap now. To name a few, My first camera was an Elura100 which is a small little minidv camera that shoots really beautiful pictures, and it actually has a little bit of manual control, including manual white balance, and it has an "exposure" and "focus" adjustment that you can do with one of the exterior buttons. Also has a native 16:9 chip, which is pretty rare for SD cameras in this price range.
The other cam I've used and loved is the Sony TRV20. I shot a 30 min shortish film on it several years ago, and it really performed well. You can get them on ebay these days for cheap, but originally they retailed for around 1400.
Finally, check out the panasonic GS series, including the GS320 and GS500. I've never used one, but they are very popular.

Sorry I don't know anything about flash cameras. I'm pretty much a tape kinda guy.
 
Take a look at B&H's site. See what they have. For SD tho, I'd find a older, good MiniDV cam, instead of getting a new flash memory one. Heck, I just sold a Canon Optura 20 on eBay a couple weekends ago for like 90 bucks. That cam can shoot a real decent image for a consumer SD camcorder. A dang good old one that tends to be a bit undervalued is Sony's TRV70. The image quality from that cam is reasonably close to the image quality from a PV-GS400 (GS400 edges out the TRV70, but not by a lot).
 
Just joined this site. Maybe going out on a limb, but I have shot a 20 minute short and a couple dozen live band videos with just a simple Canon FS100(about $450). Outside it is great, inside suffers as the lights go lower, but it has a 1/8" mic input and several parameters you can mess with. My wherehouse is located at www.youtube.com/armeeuff1
I just started shooting a year ago, so better camera,lights,mics, etc. is planned for this year.
 
Not sure if you'd consider one of those "pocket-camcorders," but I was looking for one a few months ago and settled on this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Sanyo-MPEG-4-Definition-Camcorder-Optical/dp/B000W9Z0T0

I have been quite happy with it for what it is. Just a compact carry-anywhere camera that you can pull out and shoot discretely on a moment's notice. It shoots 720/30p, and is CCD, so no rolling shutter jello cam effects. For me that was a big deal. With it being such a small camera, it's hard not to be a little shaky, which would cause some nauseating wobble on a CMOS camera.
 
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