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General discussion

Need some advice

Jan 12, 2005 10:13AM PST

I own a digital video camcorder that I am thrilled with the options and things that I can do with it but I am very dissatisfied with the quality that it produces. I have a MAC OS X 10.3.7 computer and I work a lot in iPhoto, iDVD, and iMovie. I want to get a new comcorder but I don't know what kind to buy or how much I need to spend for the "GREAT" quality that I want from it. All I want to be able to do is to camcord excellent video , regardless of the " lighting conditions" (I do most of my camcording indoors) and when I play back that video on my camera, as I watch it , I want to be able to take pictures from it (that will automatically go on it's card) and I want them to come out excellent enough to print an 8x10 photo if i want to. I have a lot of grandchildren and getting them to sit still for a picture is next to impossible so I like this option of taking pictures from the actual vidio movie. I download all my movies and photos from my camera into my computer and I am very dissatisified with the quality of them. Outdoors on a very (and I mean very) sunny day the quality is excellent but indoors regardless of the lighting the quality goes down to about a minus 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. I know I can buy a 200.00 flash for this digital camera/camcorder but I doubt that that will solve my problem. The thing cost me 550 to start with and I hate to throw more money into it on a wing and a prayer. I'm no pro so if there's a lot of steps or settings you have to do with the camcorder to accompolish what I'm after I'll get lost in the shuffle. Can anyone tell me what I need to buy. I don't mind spending the money for something that works but I also don't want to pay for a lot of options that I may not need or use. Thanks to all. I'm tired of being lost on the corner of walk and don't walk -- if you know what I mean.

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