Which camcorder should i buy, hd or not?

[stevie vip 99]

So I'm looking to buy a camcorder and just need some advice on what to look for. I'll be mainly using it for when our first child is born in a few months time. I don't need anything over the top as I probably won't use it all that much.Should I be getting a HD camcorder or just a normal one? My friend showed me his cheap jvc camcorder (around ?70) from currys and the picture looked fine, maybe this is all I need? I know nothing about camcorders so any help would be appreciated.Thanks, Steve

[charlesr]

I have a 1080HD camcorder. It's fine if you only ever look at the vids on your PC and have vast HDD space available.
However, I like to be able to stream them to the 360 to watch on the telly, but the 360 doesn't understand the bluray format, so I have to recode them, which takes too long even on my i5 cpu. It also hammers my offsitebackup facility, uploading gigs at a time.

If you can get one that does 720p, I'd suggest that would be plenty.

Congrats on the upcoming arrival! If you are anything like me, it'll be static photos most of the time and then more vids when older and actually doing something interesting!

[smouty]

I tried one of the solid state devices that record onto SD card and TBH in good light the results were quite acceptable.
These are reasonable priced and easy to transfer the footage. Image stabilization is a must though.

Have a look at this Sanyo VPC-CG20EXBK-B for the type I mean.

[wakka]

Yeah I would buy an HD one that uses memory cards for storage. They've gotten ridiculously low cost and it's very convenient compared to tape or HDD based camcorders. You won't need more than 720p though.

[paulus]

I have an FZ Lumix Camera that takes nice 720P HD Footage as well as takes smashing pics. Just a thought?

[stevie vip 99]

Thanks for the replys folks.
Just a quick question that may seem silly but if I buy a HD camcorder if I want to put it on a disc does it have to be a blu ray or can I transfer to normal dvds?

Paulus, I have a couple of cameras that can shoot video footage but would just prefer a stand alone one but it is a good option.

[JSR]

You can easily place the HD video on a DVD, but you will get much less footage on it, as it has a much smaller capacity. A single layer DVD will give you just under a hour on a average bitrate. You will still need a blu-ray player to play the content of the DVD though.

And go for a full HD camcorder around the price of 400?. All of them lets you shoot at 720 if thats enough for you. But at that price class you're almost guaranteed to get a machine with a CMOS sensor, which gives you more vivid video, with much less grain than the cheaper models have.