a camcorder that...

[mycomputersucks]

i'm a camcorder noob, but i am pretty good w/ a standard digital camera. i'm looking for a camcorder that records in high enough resolution to print frames at like 4x6. i've seen some camcorders that have digital camera's built in, but i'm worried that the quality won't be as good. I would be satisfied w/ just firewire and manually picking frames and printing them out.

also, what is the best media for it? minidv? dvd? thanks for any info!

 

[dboy]

I'd stay away from dvd-based camcorders if you want to edit anything. Get a minidv camera for the easiest editing - but keep in mind that dv video will take 13gig of hard drive space per hour.

As for printing, a frame of video is only 720x480 pixels - ie only 0.3 megapixels. It's not gonna make a good print I don't think. Some camcorders will take a higher rez still image and record it to a card - but why? If you've already got a still digital camera, just carry it cause it'll probably beat the pants off the stills from any camcorder.

 

[Tim_axe]

You'll likely get better pictures from a regular camera. A camcorder records at a fixed shutter speed of 1/30 or 1/60 of a second. Usually too much motion occurs in this time to make a good still-photo.

And while a camcorder is generally much better than a regular digitalcamera in low-light stuff (f/1.4 lenses, larger sensors), most of the times the images they produce are interlaced and as such you really only get 1/2 the resolution and 2x worse the "still frame" ability.

A regular (decent) digital camera will surpass a camcorder in image quality hands down. A camcorder in "camera" mode will produce better images than in "video" mode, but both of them will be much worse tha a regular still camera...