Fellas:

I have never bought a digital video camera. My birthday is coming up up and my friend is going to buy me one. We are going to pick it out together.

There are many kinds.

HDD, direct to DVD, SD cards, etc...

1. I will be using the camera to film swimmers underwater to analyze their swimming strokes.

2. Also, I will use the camera for normal videoing.

Given these conditions and with a budget between 20 and 30k baht, which cameras can you recommend or at least what things I should be looking for when I make the purchase.

Perhaps even explaining the advantages and disadvantages of the different formats available.

Thank you in advance.

Turok

For the best quality and convenience you need a camera that uses DV tapes.

HD is fine, but once it is full you need access to a computer to download,

with tape you just slip another one in.

DVD is not to be recommended as the data is compressed as it it written to the DVD,

loosing some quality.

SD cards are usually just for stills.

Buy a second battery.

Buy a second battery.

Very good point and look into the battery life!!

Along similar lines - my Thai partner wants to buy a digital still camera. Probably looking at 8+ megapixels. He will download the pix to his laptop. Any suggestions WHERE to purchase one? I have a couple of options: either in Australia on eBay, in Singapore or in Bangkok.

Peter

absolutely go for MiniDV if you want the best quality and also if you intend to edit your movies on a PC. Don't be put off by 'tape' in the modern HDD age, tape is still far superior to anythng available today.

Have a look at the Canon HV20.. an amazing high/standard definition MiniDV camera. It's a current model and is gaining great worldwide popularity at the moment, a bit more than 30k baht, but it's worth every satang..

Sanyo Xacti VPC-E1 is waterproof up to 5 feet, using SD card and is also a 6M still camera. Price around $500.

So for those tape lovers. Once your done filming and want to edit what you have filmed.

Yes you need to down it to a pc, aahhhh you need some capture card and that card will do what with the quality?

I have a Sony SR 100 here (with HD) and makes very nice and crisp footage.

It has a 30 GB capacity so more then enough I would say

Very easy to use and for downloading your stuff just plug it into your USB port.

I payed 34.000 Bath for it about 8 months ago.

It will be a lot cheaper now as all the hype is HD nowadays.

Kind regards,

Alex

So for those tape lovers. Once your done filming and want to edit what you have filmed.

Yes you need to down it to a pc, aahhhh you need some capture card and that card will do what with the quality?

I have a Sony SR 100 here (with HD) and makes very nice and crisp footage.

It has a 30 GB capacity so more then enough I would say

Very easy to use and for downloading your stuff just plug it into your USB port.

I payed 34.000 Bath for it about 8 months ago.

It will be a lot cheaper now as all the hype is HD nowadays.

Kind regards,

Alex

capture card ???

with MiniDV you 'live' capture via firewire with no loss of quality whatsoever.

Hard Disk Drive camcorders are ok for the hobbyist, but if you're serious about getting good quality PC editing from your movies then quite simply, you can forget this format.. try editing these compressed files in any video editng software and you'll soon see why..

tape is still best

And when your hard disk is full you have to rush off and find a pc.

Whilst I just slip in a new tape and carry on shooting.

For the best quality and convenience you need a camera that uses DV tapes.

HD is fine, but once it is full you need access to a computer to download,

with tape you just slip another one in.

DVD is not to be recommended as the data is compressed as it it written to the DVD,

loosing some quality.

SD cards are usually just for stills.

Buy a second battery.

most Video cameras come with 40-60 GB of memory on the hard drive, thats 30-50 hours of shooting.

Yo the OP is looking for something that can be used by someone that does not have any experience with video editing.

I would have to agree 100% with the recommendations for a camera that uses mini dv tapes. Just because the op may not have experience in video editing doesn't mean that quality should be sacrificed by going with a dvd or hard drive based camera. If you want to compress the video you can always do it later.