Is the Canon Optura 400 Mini DV a good one? We have decided to get a new camcorder and were looking at this one. It is $550.00 at costco. tom

I like to check out epinions.com for this kind of thing. There are a couple of reviews on it.

http://www.epinions.com/pr-Canon_Optura_400_Mini_DV_Digital_Camcorder/display_~reviews


My wife and I picked up a Panasonic a couple of years ago. I can't remember the model name exactly, but it is very similar to the PV-GS50. What I liked is that it was small and light. It doesn't have a memory card slot for pictures like some do, but rather it records on the tape. It doesn't matter to me since I would never use that anyway.

Keep in mind though that most camcorders are going to DVD's instead of mini DV's. It would be nice to just throw the disc into your DVD player and not have to mess around with wires. The recording media is likely cheaper too. Downside is the cameras can be bigger and are likely a little more $$. We got ours for around $500 CAD (around $425 US).


SS

Thanks sam. Didn't know that it used a tape. I will paqss on it and go to one that uses a dvd instead. tom

They use a tape that is about 2" x 3" or so. They are definitely better than the old 8mm's. The major difference is that it is a digital recording (thus the DV = Digital Video) which provides better clarity and easier editing. The nice thing about a tape is that it doesn't get scratched, but the DVD is nice for the aforementioned reasons.

Check out epinions and search for DVD camcorders if that is the way you want to go. They give you a number of variables that you can search for and then you can read the reviews of those that actually use them.


SS

I read on one of those sites, that if you intend to do much editting, stay away from the DVD format cameras.

Just a thought.

Do you remember the reason why? I thought that if the video was digital it would be pretty easy to edit, but I'm no expert by any means.


SS

I don't really know why. I did some quick surfing, and found this site...

DVD Site

...which has a warning right on the top of the page.

I bet you could research that site and get a real answer. It might not even be an issue for most of us.

Okay. I think that I understand now. IIRC MPEG-2 (which is what DVD camcorders use) is a higher compression file type so you end up with slightly poorer quality. Like you said, probably not a big deal to most of us. Kind of like the difference between CD quality music and MP3 quality. The compression results in some noise and loss of quality, but for most of us it isn't a big deal.


SS

I don't think I will be doing any editing so that should not be an issue. Sam how do you get what you recorded off the tape and onto another format? DO you dump it to your computer? and then dow to say DVD? or do you go to VHS from the camcorder to a vcr?
thanks tom

Tom,
Either way works. You can dump it onto your computer and play with it in some video editing software (I have Vegas Video, but I don't use it to it's full ability) and then burn it onto either a CD-R (which will work in your DVD player if it plays WMA files) or onto a DVD. Or you can patch it through your VCR and record it onto VHS, or just watch it. Normally I just watch it off of the camcorder since it came with a remote. Eventually I will put it onto a DVD but I've been too lazy so far.


SS