Camcorder Recommendation Needed

InterceptPoint wrote on 5/15/2008, 7:31 AM

I'm going to help buy my 9 year old grandson & budding video editor a new video camera so he can become the ultimate 4th grader YouTube Wiz. Right now he is warming up with a Logitech Webcam and he is doing pretty good so I want to encourage him.

So I need a recommendation for an inexpensive camcorder:

$300 or so
No tape - chip, disk or harddisk only
Video files editable with Moviemaker for now and Vegas later
16:9 format
If HD (unlikely in this price range) must have SD mode
Zoom or at the minimum digital zoom

TIA for any help

Comments

John_Cline wrote on 5/15/2008, 7:52 AM

The Aiptek "Action HD" for $200 meets most all of your criteria. It gets you real 1080-30p and 720-60p 16:9 HD as well as SD, 3x optical zoom. It records in the .MOV MP4 format to SD or SDHC cards. I doubt Moviemaker will deal with the files, but you could probably use the Quicktime Player to convert to a file format that will work.

http://www.aiptek.com

johnmeyer wrote on 5/15/2008, 8:17 AM

I assume you have looked at the Camcorderinfo.com ratings, sorted by price:

Camcorder ratings

Also, if you are not familiar with Dealnews, check out their site for latest deals and closeouts on all sorts of things. Here's a link directly to their camcorder section:

Dealnews Camcorders

Finally, you can often get great deals on eBay. For a nine-year-old, you can get a pre-stressed used camera ... although having said that, my dad let me use his beloved Contax 35mm camera when I was nine years old:

busterkeaton wrote on 5/15/2008, 8:54 AM

Start good habits now and don't forget to buy the kid a tripod!

reberclark wrote on 5/15/2008, 11:16 AM

Canon FS 100 (standard def) has true 16:9 and uses memory cards (SDHC - get an 8 to 16GB one). No HDD to break. I just bought this camera and it would be great. $399. I second the motion about the tripod! Best of luck. He's a lucky kid.

Konrad wrote on 5/15/2008, 11:43 AM

Don't Forget
Used Bogen-Manfratto Tripod with what they "call" a fluid head
If the cam does not come with basic NLE and a lot do then Used Copy of Vegas "Studio" I have a copy of VMS 6 Platinum (Never Upgraded) For Sale (Movie Maker suck in my not humble opinion.)

If he is K-12 or College/U student he qualifies for Academic pricing see http://www.academicsuperstore.com/

johnmeyer wrote on 5/15/2008, 11:56 AM

If he is K-12 or College/U student he qualifies for Academic pricing see

A nine-year-old grandson in K-12 or college? If that's the case, get him a Red camera. He's earned it!

InterceptPoint wrote on 5/18/2008, 6:23 AM

Thanks for all the inputs. We are homing in on a solution but I need some more help. Here is where I stand with the search for the perfect camcorder for a 9 year old:

1. I like the Flash storage camcorders the best. I think the grandson can master getting the files off of a memory card and on to a computer pretty easily.

2. With anything but tape, which I've ruled out, it seems we are stuck with either MPEG2 or MPEG4 formats. Neither of these is editor-friendly.

3. The DVD and HDD cameras seem to be mostly or all MPEG2.

4. The Flash cameras seem to be mostly or all MPEG4.

So a couple of questions for the experts:

A. Is MPEG4 going to be a bigger problem than MPEG2?

B. What would be a reasonable workflow to convert either format to something editable in the low end (and 9-year old user friendly) video editing systems?

Jeff B wrote on 5/18/2008, 7:02 AM

I've been using a pocket sized flip video for about a year...
http://www.theflip.com/products.shtml

It's an easy transfer to the computer, 640x480 framesize, and the files can be directly handled by Nero or VideoStudio, which are both about $100. (I've yet to figure out how to get Vegas to handle the codec (sees only the audio), but converting the files to DV or uncompressed .avi in one of the cheaper programs is easily done. Windows Movie Maker won't see it as anything but an audio file, either.)

For a nine year old, cam and software doesn't have to go over $250 for a really cool setup for producing YouTube uploads.

InterceptPoint wrote on 5/18/2008, 7:29 PM

You can check out the grandson's Webcam work on YouTube at:

Radarcivilian on YouTube