Recommendations for decent, lightweight, easy to use camcorder

Forums › Digital Imaging › Recommendations for decent, lightweight, easy to use camcorder

SumnerBoy

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#191205 27-Jan-2016 16:23

Thought I had 7 weeks to organise this, as that was when our first bub was due to arrive, but whilst on a wee trip up to Nelson for a mates wedding our little girl decided it was time to enter the world.

So long story short I have a pile of things to organise quick smart, one of which is buying a video camera to begin recording our little girls 'firsts'.

I looked into video cameras a few years ago and the consensus then was that Panasonic were right up there, just wondering what the best is today?

Don't need anything too fancy, just a decent HD image, easy to use, reasonable zoom, good audio, good onboard storage, and nice and easy to handle, I.e. small.

Looking forward to hearing your suggestions!
Ben

Lias

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#1480158 27-Jan-2016 18:48

I think most people just use smartphones these days?

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toyonut

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#1480236 27-Jan-2016 20:42

We have a Canon Ixus point and shoot which takes nice HD video and has OIS etc. Takes good photo's too. It it is better than a unitasker like the Flip mini back we bought when they were a thing. Still we end up taking photo's and video on the phone and forgetting the camera at home.

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SumnerBoy

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#1480647 28-Jan-2016 13:19

Surprising but maybe you are right @lias, perhaps everyone does just use their phones these days!

Will do some more research and reading of dedicated camera forums to see what the consensus is elsewhere.

xpd

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#1480663 28-Jan-2016 13:51

Weve always just used our phones or point and shoot (with vid). Did buy a dedicated video camera (DVD based) many moons ago, ended up with very little use and sits in the cupboard......

XPD / Gavin

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Jaxson

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#1480679 28-Jan-2016 14:25

The power of the cell phone is you likely have it on you, and can start it recording quickly.

I make compilation videos out of lots of little clips. I get bored easily with hours of just straight handicam footage.

Point being that cellphone clips don't have to be deleted etc, or dismissed as not good enough.

We're pretty spoilt these days though, in that most cameras have a fairly decent movie mode now. I tend to recommend a handicam if you are going to be filming for really long periods, such as classroom lectures etc, but honestly any cell phone (with enough storage space) or camera with a decent movie mode is sufficient these days. Plus money spent on a good camera can return great stills photos also.

dman

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#1510189 9-Mar-2016 22:11

The market for both low end camcorders and point & shoots has completely collapsed.

All thanks to smartphones!

But if you want to spend a bit of coin on a camcorder go get a Sony CX900, has a lovely big 1" sensor. (or spend a little bit more for the 4K version: Sony AX100)

However personally I'd lean towards getting any one of the four Sony RX100 models (which depends on your budget, they're all good! And each a little improvement over the one before, but at an increased cost). Or a Panasonic LX100, or Nikon DL24-85

Or a Sony RX10 mk1 or RX10 mk2 or Panasonic FZ1000, if you want great reach (but at a cost of much greater bulk).

The great thing is all of these cameras have a 1" sensor (except for the LX100 which uses a 4/3" sensor in it, which is even bigger), which is *HEAPS* larger than what is usually in a camcorder or point & shoot.

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SumnerBoy

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#1510221 9-Mar-2016 23:37

Thanks dman - I will check out those models. Appreciate your feedback.

dman

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#1560397 27-May-2016 02:30

SumnerBoy, what did you end up getting? :)

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SumnerBoy

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#1560512 27-May-2016 10:20

I didn't in the end - as suggested by others I have a pretty decent camera on my Samsung S7 so have just been using that - much easy as I always have it with me and the quality is pretty good.