Hello.

I am in need of some advice from some of you folks that know what you are doing more than I do. I know a little bit about cameras/video, but not enough. There are thousands of choices it seems and I want to buy the right one. I will outline below what I am looking for and what I have looked at so far.

I definitely want digital storage like hard drive, and NOT DVD-R or mini-DV. I am a computer guy and I can handle converting it if necessary and all the burning/editing. I do not know what format the video is stored in on the hard drive, is it wmv, dvd, avi, or what?

I would like to stick to something with a reputable name.

The use will be for my family. I have 2 young sons and my wife and I want to capture all sorts of stuff. This will be indoor and outdoor.

I do have a budget, so I cannot spend anything like $1000 or anything. I am looking in the $300-$600 range.

So far, I have looked at:

Hitachi DZHS500A

JVC GZ-MG130

Sony sr200

Sony sr82

I am baffled I must say.

The hitachi has dvd and 30GB HDD, but I read reviews of bad picture quality. I want good quality that is not dim or pixelated. I am not a video enthusiast, but I want it to look good on tv.


The JVC gets decent reviews, but some say that video quality is very bad in low light. Overall, many people complained about video quality.

The SOny's I am baffled on. I see that the 200 seems to have some type of better quality, but many less features like smaller zoom, smaller HDD. The 82 has lots of nice features, but like I say, the 200 is "said" to have better quality.

So whats the deal? Are these good choices? If not, what would you suggest?

BTW, I found good looking prices at http://www.access2digital.com.

most hdd cameras use mpeg formating. although the compression algorithms they use will vary. after a quick look on sony's website i couldn't see a big difference between the sr8 and the sr200 except that the 200 appears to be an older model and a lot cheaper. for home use you will find that 10x zoom is normally enough. once you start going beyond that it get difficult to hold the camera steady even with stabiliser technology. personally i have never been a fan of hitachi cameras. i would be looking at sony panasonic and jvc in your case.

most hdd cameras use mpeg formating. although the compression algorithms they use will vary. after a quick look on sony's website i couldn't see a big difference between the sr8 and the sr200 except that the 200 appears to be an older model and a lot cheaper. for home use you will find that 10x zoom is normally enough. once you start going beyond that it get difficult to hold the camera steady even with stabiliser technology. personally i have never been a fan of hitachi cameras. i would be looking at sony panasonic and jvc in your case.

Thanks. The sr200 is actually a bit more expensive than the sr82. Thats part of why it confused me.

hmm on the sony website it is substantially cheaper..... maybe the store you are looking at has old stock that they bought at a higher price?

Well, I am not sure that I saw that. Attached is a screenshot of what I saw in the comparison on the Sony website.

lol the sony sight is too smart for its own good, it converts to local currency when showing prices. i guess you will just have to see what your local retailers have them for.

Ok, well if you check the link I posted, it also shows the SR200 as more expensive. I am just trying to find out which is a better choice between the SR82 and the SR200, or should I get another one?

http://www.access2digital.com/index.cfm?method=c_products.viewProducts&Category=61&root=33

Any other opinions on this? I am getting very crunched for time.

I definitely want digital storage like hard drive, and NOT DVD-R or mini-DV.

I agree with you. I don't see any reason to choose a DVD or mini-dv camera. And the prices are relatively not very different.

If you can live with the video and audio being compressed 2.5 times more with the hard drive the Mini-DV, go for it. Shooting professionally, I'll stick with the less compressed Mini-DV for the time being.