Need advice for a camcorder

[ncovert]

I am looking at buying another camcorder and wanted suggestions.
But first, the requirements:

1) Decent quality recording (at least 480p, preferably HD)
2) Saves to an AVI format video file
3) Not to expensive to buy new or used

[mariushm]

1. Why?
2. Why?

3 ... what's your budget?

1. Why just SD? There are very cheap and quality camcorders nowadays that do 720p or 1080i and record straight to MPEG2 or h264 video, which means you don't have to bother to recompress for Youtube and other things.

2. Why AVI? AVI is obsolete... basically only camcorders that record in AVI are the ones using MotionJPG as codec or something just as ancient... motion jpeg uses 2-4 MB/s and the compression quality varies. h264 and mpeg2 vary the bitrate depending on how much it needs to maintain quality so it's better.
And with motionjpg, you're forced to re-encode to something better.

3 ... what's the budget?

I recommend Canon camcorders but something good is 300$+

[ncovert]

Originally Posted by mariushm

1. Why?
2. Why?

3 ... what's your budget?

1. Why just SD? There are very cheap and quality camcorders nowadays that do 720p or 1080i and record straight to MPEG2 or h264 video, which means you don't have to bother to recompress for Youtube and other things.

2. Why AVI? AVI is obsolete... basically only camcorders that record in AVI are the ones using MotionJPG as codec or something just as ancient... motion jpeg uses 2-4 MB/s and the compression quality varies. h264 and mpeg2 vary the bitrate depending on how much it needs to maintain quality so it's better.
And with motionjpg, you're forced to re-encode to something better.

3 ... what's the budget?

I recommend Canon camcorders but something good is 300$+

I need an AVI because WMM doesn't support MPEG4 or h264.

[mariushm]

I guess WMM = Windows Movie Maker ?

Windows Movie Maker isn't the only editor out there. It's actually a bad, old editor.

There are plenty of freeware or shareware editors out there or even cheap ones (20-50$), no need to suffer with an obsolete camera that you'll use for years just because a software doesn't support the format a camera saves in.

Not to mention that unless you need to add transitions or effects, you don't even need an editor. There are free tools that allow you to cut segments from the video recorded by the camera without re-encoding the content, the h264 or mpeg2 digital streams allow that.

In addition, the bitrates of h264 streams are much smaller than what codecs need to save in AVI format. A HD h264 stream is usually 10-30 mbps (1.5-3 MB/s or about 80-100 MB/minute) so you can just save about 50 minutes of recording on one DVD and not bother with editing them.

How much are you willing to spend on a camera?

Here's a good one

Canon Vixia HF-R21
Review http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content...oduct-Tour.htm
Amazong page: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B004HW7E6K

32 GB of internal memory , enough for ~ 3 hours at highest quality, ~ 12 hours at lowest.. but you can still plug simple flash cards to add "disk space", HD, saves in h264, can copy fast to computer, good zoom, saves in 1920x1080 or 1440x1080 24fps, 30fps, 60fps interlaced ... what more do you need...

If you want cheaper you can check these :

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004I43MIQ...6YQE1MWKJYFZT&
http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-HDC-...709411&sr=1-21

[NxB]

I don't think anything good records to AVI. Cameras are expensive... 480P is really lacking these days.

I say go SLR if you want really good video. Canon or Panasonic. GH1 and T2i can be had fairly cheap these days. Canon does have the 12 minute limit though... how long are you recording.

You can also go HDV as it should now be at firesale prices. You get MPEG2 at about 30mbps. You do have to deal with tape capture though.

If you're dealing with windows movie maker, even the open source video editors will do as a replacement.