Best current HD Video Cam under $500?

G

gibber

Gawd
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Jul 16, 2007
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Is this the best current under $500 HD camcorder?

Sanyo VPC-FH1A

Maybe the best "deal" at $320? Maybe there are better ones for $499? I don't really want to spend over $500, but if it meant I could get one that was really substantially better, I suppose I might stretch to $600 at most...
 
Buy yourself a refurbished Canon Vixia HF200 for $399. You will not regret it. I bought one a couple of months ago and love it. The video quality for that price can not be beat unless you want to spent $1000+. I admit I was a little hesitant to spent that much on a refurb, but once I got it I can honestly say the thing looks/feels/works like brand new. :)

http://shop.usa.canon.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_10051_10051_249405_-1
 
Cool, thanks for the link. Do you know how those two compare? Hmm, I like that the Canon has f/1.8...

$426.99 w/tax.

The Sanyo does 1080P at 60FPS and 8MP stills, also, it has a high speed 600FPS mode - does the Canon have any of those features? It's also over $100 less. I'm sure the Canon must be higher quality in some aspect, I'll have to read more reviews.

Oh, here's something about the Sanyo: "I really like this camera. I had a Canon HF200 a few months ago and returned it because of its terrible low-light performance." Hmm. Low light w/low noise is important to me. Only drawback I found so far is no external mic port? That seems kinda lame, but, I've never used the external mic port on my existing (non-HD) camcorder so, guess I shouldn't worry about it. Just record digital audio separately, if I must have highest quality stereo sound...

EDIT: Oh, now I see, there's some kind of shitty intellitext type crud that turns certain words into links w/popup balloons...
 
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Well, after reading around the net more on these cameras, it looks like the Canon has better OIS, and might be the better camera under good lighting conditions. But I'll mostly be using mine for home movies of the kid + baby, sometimes evenings/indoor lighting.

I would have liked to try the Canon, but I ended up with $200+ in Amazon gift certificates and with the price starting at $316 I couldn't pass up the Sanyo.

What I really wanted was a Canon T2i, the HD video from those cameras looks awesome. Microcenter has the body on sale for $719, but not in stock :(
 
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