I am starting to look for a new camcorder, but I dont even know where to begain. I dont know about resolution or ratios or differant zooms. I basically know nothing. Is there someone out there in PC land who can help?
BJ, I'm no expert on camcorders but have had several over last 10 years, the best of which has been an old Sony handycam camcorder. Although it's outdated it still works perfectly, has never needed repair and seems very robust. By contrast,my experience with my 18month old Canon miniDV camcorder (MV6i)has been heartbreaking. It has been back to the repair shop three times and still doesn't work properly. Initial problem was the screen/visual going completely black but audio still recorded. This, of course, happened on the second day of vacation in Spain and was apparently due to a chip fault according to Canon. A few months later, the cassette mechanism seemed to malfunction and it kept asking to eject the tape every few seconds of playing/recording. Once this was apparently corrected , after 3weeks in the workshop, the screen started to split into 4 sections and blue/white sqaures seemed to superimpose on the recorded images. Another 2weeks in the workshop and now they say they have replaced the cassette mechanism. However, it's still not possible to rewind and play a full tape without the "eject tape" message. I've given up on this camcorder as an unreliable piece of rubbish. Sorry for the ramble but I guess what I am saying is don't buy a canon mini DV camcorder.