Best video camera under $600

[Blackadder]

Just seeing what people would recommend as the best/easiest to use for a novice video camera up to $600.
Thanks in advance

 

[RB]

I thought you would get some responses.
For me we just use our Lumix TZ-15 to take short hd videos. We have never owned a video camera and maybe others have gone towards the "integrated" movie option?

 

[markis10]

You will often see the video cameras on clearance at many stores these days, as mentioned the video functionality in still cameras has made them obsolete!

 

[medhead]

I have an old Sony handycam DV tape. Looked at a new one recently and your price point seems good. I decided maximum optical zoom was most important. I think most video camera will do better on this feature than a still. I was going to be happy with SD, but would go for HD depending on price.

I also decided that a memory card camera would be better than a HDD camera. Mainly because of ease of handling the media. A small memory card with hold less video but I figure that will be easier to extract and process, say an hour of video. Whereas a HDD will have many hours and once filled you need to then sit down and clear that somehow, which is going to be a bigger one off job. This view was also influenced by how I haven't processed a number of tapes that I have sitting around.

You probably need to consider what would suit yourself in terms of recording media and storage capacity. You might be happy to collect hours of video and then process it later.

 

[UP4014]

Whatever you go for, try and get a 3 chip camera, a chip for each colour speeds up the processing ability and will deliver a better end image.

 

[Blackadder]

Thanks for the thoughts much appreciated leaning towards a straight video camera rather than a still camera that has video functionality, have my trusty Nikon DSLR with 18-55 and 75-200 zoom lenses for that.
medhead thanks for that will look at Paxtons, JB Hi-Fi etc , thinking along the memory card lines just for the processing ease on my less than modern computer.
BAM1748 Will keep that in mind, thanks.

 

[UP4014]

Photo Riesel - on Kent St at the corner of Market St Sydney is sharp at pricing.

 

[casanovawa]

Went to this site

Panasonic Video Cameras and Camcorders | Browse our range of Panasonic Video Cameras and Camcorders

in 2010 and bought one of the Panasonic HD video cameras, much cheaper i think than trying to buy them anywhere in Australia. Forget the exact model i bought but it was high $300s/low $400s for a HD video which would have added at least aother couple of $100s here in Oz... Has worked fine taking great clear video... It was an SD camera which i hadn't had before (used a dv tape model prior) but the SD card has worked fine.. On full HD a 16 gig chip holds about 2.5 hours and can be put straight in a card reader/netbook and copied onto the computer..

I also have a dslr as well and while the video option is good, i don't think it is as good as a dedicated video camera yet, in things like panning etc, so prefer to have one camera for doing each to get best results...

Anyway check the site out, there are other models and makers of course.... I also used the cnet website as well to put models in and see what the site rated them and also what users said about the models before making my decision...

 

[UP4014]

One thing many people don't do with video, buy a tripod !! (even a cheapie)

 

[Blackadder]

Went to this site

Panasonic Video Cameras and Camcorders | Browse our range of Panasonic Video Cameras and Camcorders

in 2010 and bought one of the Panasonic HD video cameras, much cheaper i think than trying to buy them anywhere in Australia. Forget the exact model i bought but it was high $300s/low $400s for a HD video which would have added at least aother couple of $100s here in Oz... Has worked fine taking great clear video... It was an SD camera which i hadn't had before (used a dv tape model prior) but the SD card has worked fine.. On full HD a 16 gig chip holds about 2.5 hours and can be put straight in a card reader/netbook and copied onto the computer..

I also have a dslr as well and while the video option is good, i don't think it is as good as a dedicated video camera yet, in things like panning etc, so prefer to have one camera for doing each to get best results...

Anyway check the site out, there are other models and makers of course.... I also used the cnet website as well to put models in and see what the site rated them and also what users said about the models before making my decision...

Thanks, will check it out