Q&A: what is the best reasonably priced camcorder i could buy?

Question by jeffrey w: what is the best reasonably priced camcorder i could buy?
Im looking to buy a camcorder very soon and im wondering what kind i should get. long story short, my friends and I are in the process of making a “Jackass” type movie and we’ve been using two digital cameras.. im looking to spend around 350 dollars.. which camcorder would be the best deal? (keep in mind we need a pretty good resolution and all that kind of stuff)

Best answer:

Answer by babeboomer
I recently purchased a JVC Everio (GZ-MG330) camcorder for a cruise I took. I was very pleased with the results as I am not very electronic?camera savvy.

It was very easy to use, to zoom in on things with the 35X optical zoom and it will hold up to 37 hours of good video on its 30GB hard disk drive. (I videoed everything and anything on the 7-day cruise and never ran out of hard drive space. It did a good job in low light conditions, too even though I just pointed and pushed the button. It did a good job of recording the take-off and landing of the plane (I know, I know, you are not suppose to have electronics on then, but it was my first time up there).

I only had to charge the battery every night, but it lasted all day long on a charge).

I purchased it 2 months ago, online, on EBAY, for $ 257 out-the-door-shipped. I wanted a certain color (seems the blue ones are more in demand) But you can find the silver color much cheaper.

I also have the JVC Share Station in which to directly “burn” the DVD’s from the camcorder. I am in the process of doing this now, (after I learn how to combine some Pentax underwater videos with the Everio videos to burn together).

I did my research for two months and the JVC seemed to be the best. I don’t trust any products which I see are sold frequently as “remanufactured,” as to me, that means there are repair problems with the product. And the JVC and Pentax products never are sold as such.

For $ 350 (I paid $ 382 for both) you should be able to get the JVC silver-colored GZ-MG330 hard disk drive camcorder and the Jvc DVD burner CU-VD20 (which is actually a 2007 model). I checked into the newer JVC high definition camcorders, which cost more but supposedly the sound quality is not as good as the hard drive version I got. (Note: the sound could be louder on the playback which I don’t like about this camcorder, but all in all it is a good buy).

Plus JVC is there when you have questions which other companies don’t always have with a toll-free phone number!

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!