I've had my Sony DCR-TRV30 digital camcorder for 4 years and it's starting to have some problems. It has been (and still is) a terrific camcorder and I hope that it legs along for a while longer. But, in the meantime, I want to do some research on a new one just in case.
Between June and August, I use my camcorder an average of 3 times a week for about 10 hours as I do on-field recording of a baseball team in a summer college (wooden bat) league (Coastal Plain League). It has become my passion. At the end of each season (this is my 3rd), I create a 2 hour DVD of video highlights and a slide show that I give to each player, coach, and team management as a keepsake. So, there are some specific requirements that I'm looking for to serve this purpose:
1) Unless someone can convince me that another format can meet the other requirements better, I think I want to stay with the Mini-DV format. Tapes are cheap enough and I keep them as the original (DV quality) source after I have converted them to MPEG for my video editing. Not crazy about having the lower quality MPEG as my original source as provided by the hard drive or DVD camcorders). I assume this would also affect the next two requirements).
2) I've always been a proponent for using my digital camera for stills rather than my Sony camcorder. There is no comparison for the quality of picture. However, from a practical standpoint where I don't have time to switch back and forth, I'd like a camcorder that takes decent quality stills under the lights. My Sony TRV30 takes pretty poor (1.5 mp) stills (I'm sure things have gotten better in 4 years).
3) I don't know the technical background (CCD, resolution???) but funcionally, I often capture single frames of video to save as a jpeg for use on the team's website or for a slideshow (again, because it's not easy to catch action stills and record video at the same time. So, the truer the color and better the resolution on a captured frame, the better.
4) I'd like to have at least 20X optical zoom (which my TRV30 does have). I don't want to slight the outfielders just because they're farther away from me.
5) Need an easy to manuever control for the zoom function. The location of the zoom lever on my current camcorder is OK, but it's too sensitive and causes me to sometimes zoom too quickly or, due to over caution, not zoom quickly enough. Maybe it's the spring-loaded touch that makes it difficult - not sure.
6) Not sure if this is a major factor, but the larger the LCD screen the better.
7) I assume that firewire port is common place.
Budget of $1,000 - might be able to exceed a little if the camcorder separates itself from the competition.
Thanks in advance for your help.

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