Mini DV or DVD Handycam Camcorder or Mini DVD???

[A_DOG73]

I am looking to buy a camera and I don't know which one to choose. I think the mini DV records to a tape(is that bad or outdated?). The DVD Handycam records onto dvds but only 30 minutes each! The Mini DVD records like an hour or two, I'm not sure. Before you say "Why don't you look online?", I have already and that's where I'm getting confused. I just thought if someone knows about cameras they can point me in the right direction. Basically I'm just looking for a camera that can record at least 2 hours straight, with good picture quality, that I can hook up to my computer to transfer the videos. Any help is appreciated. Thanks. Oh yeah, I'm not sure I want to buy sony anymore(I'm sick of sony!) but I will consider it if it is the right one.

 

[niceboy]

i would suggest to go for a sony mini dv camcorder. great video quality & affordable price.

 

[LNCPapa]

I use Mini DV - but I'm not sure that you can get 2 hour tapes. It's all digital so there's no need to worry about quality due to the medium. Moving the video to your machine will also probably be easiest with MiniDV - but keep in mind that it's 13 gig/hour for uncompressed DV from MiniDV. I could be wrong about 2 hour tapes, but if the 2 hour thing isn't a deal breaker I'd suggest MiniDV.

 

[A_DOG73]

Thanks for the feedback. If I compress the videos, the quality goes down right?

Also how much can I compress it down to per 1 hour tape?