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General discussion

help with buying my first camcorder

Dec 11, 2010 11:55PM PST

I have never owned a camcorder before, but, I would like to buy one, & I am not electronically savy at all, &,there is so much information out there, that I am so confused & over whelmed, as to what I should buy, & I would sure appreciate some help.
My usage is quite simple actually. I would use it for my trips to Hawaii. I am a nature lover & I would take mainly scenery pictures, either as I am driving, or standing outside & panning the scenery. Then I would like to play it back on my lap top or TV, but, I want really good quality play back. I would also like it to take great still pictures of people & objects & scenery & landscape.
It needs to be good at taking sunset shots, so, I guess no glare & work great in lower light.
I would like it to be more compact, but, not at the expensive of giving up quality.
I would like to keep the cost below $500.00 for sure.
I have been told that I should get an HD camera, a long battery life & SD rather than a hard drive.
I would be so grateful for advise on this.
Thank you sooooo much!

Discussion is locked

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Help JVC GZ-MS110B Camcorder or Samsung SMX-F40 Camcoder?
Dec 12, 2010 4:13AM PST

URGENT: Same problem here too.

Based on my research samsung has compact design and higher optical and digital zoom than jvc which only has 39X optical zoom which is also enough for me. Both of them have same CMOS pixel and resolution. The only thing I m not quite confident is about the overall picture quality and image stabilizer. Samsung costs $129 JVC costs $110.28

Please someone help me decide one of them. I need to buy one of them by today or tomorrow to have it delivered before Christmas to gift.

Thank you,

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Time to try them out.
Dec 13, 2010 8:53AM PST

The Samsung review was unkind to outdoor shooting and I've used a few too many JVCs. This is not a good reason for one or the other but at the prices you listed, you are not over investing here.
Bob