Budget full HD camcorder

M

MyWorld

Executive Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2004
Messages
5,001
There is no video section, but this is the closest and probably the best place to ask.

I'm in the market for a full HD budget camcorder, and so far I have seen the BenQ M21 and BenQ M1, and I'm very uncertain on whether they will be good buys (unknown brand in an unknown territory).

Are there other options available if these two cameras are no good? At the moment I'm using a DV Panasonic camcorder and the image quality is horrible compare to any other video out there. Maybe 10 years back it was the bomb, but I cringe when I look at the final results.

* The camera is going to be used to record presentations of up to 90 minutes
* It should be reasonable in lower light (indoors under fluorescent lights)
* Should be able to do 1080 for best quality in post production

HD is a whole new field to me and I have no idea of how much space 1 hour of 1080p will even take, so if there is any advice I'm all ears.
 
charlieharper

charlieharper

Expert Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2007
Messages
3,580
Not really sure what your budget are, nor am I sure about BenQ camera quality, but in my opinion go Canon, Panasonic or Sony. They specialize in Camera's.

Most new HD camera's now record in H.264 aka AVCHD codec (.mp4 or .m2ts extensions) , which has really good compression and allowes longer recording for less memory consumption while maintaining the same video quality and resolution.

Memory wise, on my Sony HDR-CX110 I record in Highest video quality, for about 40minutes and it would consume about +-5Gb.
Battery tend to last about 140minutes.

To get the best idea about the video quality for almost ANY camera, head to YouTube and type in the model of your camera and just watch some regular user uploaded videos. Then you can compare that way.


Let me know if you have any other questions!
 
O

ozziej

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2009
Messages
718
Umm dunno if this one qualifies , but bought myself a nice unit, samsung digicam HMX-H300
Does pretty good video IMHO, it doesn't have a built in light, so in low light situations, things look a little bit grainy, but livable.

have a look
http://www.samsung.com/africa_en/co.../HMX-H300SP/MEA/index.idx?pagetype=prd_detail

Got good battery life on it - around 3 hours, it does do HD 1080( i think its i not p) , also does 30 x optical zoom, and still image capture.

I got it for R3000 at Makro on special with a 16GB card, I have seen it for around the same price at other places too.

I had a look at the sony and canon in the same price range, and this one beat the others in terms of specs and image quality
 
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