So my baby boy will be born in 3 months and looking to purchase a new camcorder, but don’t know too much about them. Looking to spend ~$400, I have looked at some HD ones in that price range but not sure of the quality.
So far the Canon VIXIA HF R10 is looking pretty nice and found it for $350.
Link below
http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/camcorders/consumer_camcorders/vixia_hf_r10#Overview
Any help would be appreciated…
Honestly just a flip HD would be pretty handy for having on hand to grab life’s little moments. I’d put the rest of the money towards an SLR if you don’t already have one. Having a camera that can go from off to closing the shutter in a second will be really handy for trying to get cute shots of a baby that’s constantly wiggling and changing expression. My sister and her husband were always complaining about how they always miss the shot with their point and shoot when their first born was born.
That’s my two cents anyway.
Fry nailed it. You can get some really inexpensive devices that shoot great video these days.
There was a still image feature that sounded pretty cool on that one, so if you caught some nice video you could go back and take pics from that original recording. I’m not sure if all camcorders do that but seemed nice to have. Have a nice digital camera now, but not SLR.
“The versatile VIXIA HF R10 even lets you capture a still image from an already recorded movie. While playing the movie in your camcorder, simply press the photo button to capture a 1920 x 1080 still image onto an SD card or to internal memory. Additionally, the VIXIA HF R10 allows you to capture 30 photos from one second of video. Now, better photos, filled with action and expressions, are easy to grab, print, post and share.”
I’d like to see that in action. I could be totally wrong, but I suspect those images will suck.
Exactly what I was thinking…but would have to see it work in store.
So I had looked at that Flip HD as well, guess the price made me think…is this too cheap for HD? It has mixed reviews but will definitely add it to the list to see in person.
Guess I have another question then, I will be getting the Droid X in the next few weeks and see that it records at 720p, same as the Flip HD’s. Would the video be anywhere near the clarity/color/brightness on the Droid vs Flip, I’m guessing not. I think I saw you have the Droid X too Fry in some post, have you tried using it to record and watched the playback yet?
Haven’t tried it yet. Though I’m hoping the video is decent I doubt that it will be as good as a purpose-made device. For one, I think it maxes out at 24 fps at 720P and will only get up to 30 frames per second at lower resolution. Beyond that I’ve got to assume that typical digital optics stuff comes into play. Sensor size, bit rate, processor, etc.
But I really don’t have much experience with videography so take what “I think I know” with a grain of salt.
the problem with the Flip is low-light situations, it will work great if you’re outside or have a ton of lights on inside. Once lighting degrades, the image quality degrades.
That was one of the downsides I read about the Flip…would the Canon listed above suffer from the same thing? I guess what would I need to look for in a camcorder (spec/feature wise) to limit the low-light problems?
I’m not an expert, so I wouldn’t really know. I am thinking it would probably be a lot better than a flip though.