Camcorder advice

JumbleDuck

JumbleDuck

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I'd like to buy my small crew a camcorder sometime. Needs to be simple, reasonably robust and fairly cheap ... ~£50 or so. Proper lens, not a Go Pro style fisheye. Must have good sound. SD card (or derivative) as storage. Second hand not objected to. I have noticed lots of cheap Vivitar things on Amazon and eBay, but the reviews are pretty uniformly scathing. All suggestions welcome.
 
Doubt you'll get much for £50...a memory card will cost £25. As said above modern smart phone will do good job.

Taken on Sony Z3 compact

 
Anders_P42 said:
Doubt you'll get much for £50...a memory card will cost £25. As said above modern smart phone will do good job.

Taken on Sony Z3 compact

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Gosh, you pay a lot for your cards, even if they are microSHDX - I bought 3 x 128Gb for less than the sum you mention and 32Gb are under £10.
But, as pointed out, a 2nd hand smartphone will do the job @ about £120.
If you want a proper zoom lens probably best to go for a conventional camera such as the Finepix or Coolpix which willrecord short video-clips with sound.
There is an Atdoshop range of claimed camcorders at about 1/2 of the OPs budget but I'd be very wary of buying that.
 
Anders_P42 said:
Doubt you'll get much for £50...a memory card will cost £25. As said above modern smart phone will do good job.
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Memory cards I have - hence why I'd like an SD camcorder. My experience with phones and still cameras has been that the pictures are OK but the sound is terrible. Thanks, though, and please keep the suggestions coming.
 
charles_reed said:
Gosh, you pay a lot for your cards, even if they are microSHDX - I bought 3 x 128Gb for less than the sum you mention and 32Gb are under £10.
But, as pointed out, a 2nd hand smartphone will do the job @ about £120.
If you want a proper zoom lens probably best to go for a conventional camera such as the Finepix or Coolpix which willrecord short video-clips with sound.
There is an Atdoshop range of claimed camcorders at about 1/2 of the OPs budget but I'd be very wary of buying that.
Click to expand...

I doubt we're buying same brand memory cards, but take your point that nothing too special required for this set up.

Yep for zoom I use Canon S95, not the best as can't adjust zoom once recording starts but decent quality.
 
There aren't any good cameras on that price range, even when a go pro is a fish eye and that it is a bit expensive, it is a great investment for you and your crew! you'll be able to record very amazing videos aboard your boat with one of those!
 
JumbleDuck said:
I'd like to buy my small crew a camcorder sometime. Needs to be simple, reasonably robust and fairly cheap ... ~£50 or so. Proper lens, not a Go Pro style fisheye. Must have good sound. SD card (or derivative) as storage. Second hand not objected to. I have noticed lots of cheap Vivitar things on Amazon and eBay, but the reviews are pretty uniformly scathing. All suggestions welcome.
Click to expand...
Just to point out , most cameras film video these days, so not sure you need a dedecated camcorder.
 
JumbleDuck said:
Good question. For better sound, mainly.
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This is the type of Panasonic that the Xacti turned into:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Panasonic...-With-16GB-Memory-Card-Included-/151509873115

I think the performance may be similar to the waterproof versions: HX-WA2 and HX-DC2. The latter often go for £90 to £150 the non waterproof jobs would be in your range.

I don't like the pistol style myself and the screen is hopeless in sunlight (they all are to some extent). The sound is excellent however as is the picture quality and they are easy to use.
 
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