Hi everybody. I'm about to embark on buying a mini dv camcorder. i was wondering what you guys and gals thought is the best out of the sony DCR-HC19 and the panasonIc NV-GS17. I am looking for something that easily connects to the pc(windows xp sp2). I have a budget of about £200 - £230 if anyone can recommend another make or model.
First check the capability of your computer. Will it accept DV inputs? Does it have a firewire port, don't even start with USB, you will have problems. You need a firewire port!
Check on that, then, buy your camcorder accordingly. Make sure that you have compatibility so you won't have problems later.
After that, you need to shop around for a decent video editing software. If you go with sony, the bundled software is prone to problems and will not work very well. Keep that in mind, that no bundled cheap software works quite as well as dedicated software for video editing. Look for Ulead or Power Director, Pinnacle Adobe premier. Digital video editing is not cheap and not as simple as people think. Get the right software and it will be easier.