Probeman

I have been thinking about picking up a camcorder for a while now, but really haven't been able to find any info that I want. I was wondering if I could hear from those who have them as well as those who know about them, what the pro's and con's of each different camera type are. Thanks guys.

Hardwrkr

iTrader: (5)

I'm prety happy with my Panasonic MiniDV camcorder. I've never used 8mm so I can't comment on the difference.

td

in terms of resolution 8mm is the lowest then digital 8mm then mini dv. Most digital 8mm camcorder's are backward compatible with 8mm. Mini DV has the best picture quality of the three and also the biggest advantage is you can do video editing on your PC through firewire with mini dv. Mini dv are the main stream right now, but soon enough the dvd camcorders will take over, would really recommend the dvd cams right now cuz the dvd's themselves are fricken expensive and picture quality is the same as mini dv cams.

choose a camera based on how it feels in your hand and how easy it is for you to keep steady a lot of times if you've go big hand their really hard to keep steady.

Optical zoom is what your looking for vs digital. digital zoom is crap, it just makes the pixels bigger. If a cam says it has 800x digital zoom the pixels are going to be so huge you wont be able to make out your picture. Optical zoom basically goes from 10x to 22x. however with 22x you will need a tripod cuz even the slightest movement will be huge.