I am a technology coordinator for a school district. One of our coaches brought a broken digital video camera to me and asked if I could research the best replacement. The following considerations to be taken into account:
1. Relatively inexpensive. Maybe $300-$600. (We are talking about a public education institution)
2. Prefer to ditch tapes and go fully digital, either a hard drive, SD card, or hybrid.
3. Must produce decent quality to burn to DVD. The coaches burn copies to swap with coaches at other schools and also use for their own review. These are also used for producing videos for college scouts.
The camera that was brought to me was a Canon Elura 60. The tape mechanism was broken and I tried to salvage the camera by recording directly to SD card, which you can do with this camera. It is a 1.3 megapixel camera and shoots in 320x240 with an .avi output file format. It was basically impossible to get a usable DVD end product with this so I am pointing them in the direction of a new camera, leading to my above questions. I am a computer tech and am not well versed in digital video photography. However, to everyone at the school district, I am the "tech guy" and pretty much the "go to" on anything that plugs into a wall or uses any form of electricity! :idea:
I did a little research online and have honed in on a couple of candidates. The Canon Vixia HG20 or the JVC Everio GZ-MG330. The main problem I am having, even in reading the reviews, is getting a clear understanding of how well these will capture live action and how that will translate to a burned DVD in the end. Is there something better than these within this price range? Any assistance somebody could give me on this is greatly appreciated as I would hate to have them buy something they can't use.