Best camcorder under $1000?

[Evil Techie]

my friend's family is buying a camcorder
their budget is $1000 roughly after tax (BC)

I havent been keeping up with camcorder technology
so what would you recommend for them?

i think since it will be family use, i recommend them to get a sony miniDV camcorders
or even the Panasonic VDR-D300 that uses DVD-RAM

but do miniDVs always have higher image quality than DVD-RAM camcorders?

[MMMMMike]

my friend's family is buying a camcorder
their budget is $1000 roughly after tax (BC)

I havent been keeping up with camcorder technology
so what would you recommend for them?

i think since it will be family use, i recommend them to get a sony miniDV camcorders
or even the Panasonic VDR-D300 that uses DVD-RAM

but do miniDVs always have higher image quality than DVD-RAM camcorders?

Yes MiniDV has a better quality then DVD. Check out www.camcorderinfo.com . It's the premier camcorder review website.

Mike

[twotterdhc6]

Consider hard disc camcorders as well. JVC first came on the market maybe 2 years ago, so the prices now are quite affordable. Sony came out with their own this year.
They are light weight (no mechanisms for inserting media), fast, and have no need to spend more to buy DV tapes or DVD.
But of course, you can't replace the hard drive if and when it craps out, and video transfer to the computer must be done via the camcorder itself.

[cheapbastage]

You don't need to spend that much on a camcorder if it's for family videos etc. Most time the higher price brings more manual controls & features that many don't use and a higher megapixel rating on the built in Digital still function. There are good cameras well below $1000 from Canon and Panasonic.

On the the Disk vs Tape vs HD front. Beyond the higher bitrate of the video on the tape, it's far easier to find a tape on vacation when your tape supply runs out. You might not be able to find the right disk at the corner drugstore. You would be SOL with the HD unless you brought your laptop and an external drive along.

[stevethewheel]

I agree that $1000 is way more than needs to be spent. Even to get really good home movies. $600-800 should be enough.

Spend the extra money on extras like a spare battery pack, good case, travel tripod, light for indoor or low-light, in-car recharger etc.

[afong56]

quite happy with my panny pvgs65--their line of 3ccd cameras in minidv are pretty good, and affordable (mostly under $1000)