Camera Advice
 

I am looking to pick up a camcorder (is that still the right terminology??) for DE use. I found a thread from last summer that recomends Sony DV camera's, anything changed in the past few months? I was at Best Buy tonight and they had 2 floor models selling for $250. Each was MiniDV w/ am A/V input, one a JVC the other a Sanyo or Samsung.

The only use I see is track video, I'm single, so unless Paris wants to come over one night.... you get the idea. So, most camera's seem to be the same, save for some fancy features that dont seem important to DE use. Am I missing anything?

Also, is the software that's usually included with the camera good enough to convert for PC viewing/saving? Nothing fancy, but I would like to convert to .mpeg for sharing/posting.

Thanks for any recommendations

Some things to think about:

- You want the widest [shortest effective focal length] you can get for better coverage inside the car.
- You want a good picture stabilization system. Nothing more annoying than an in-car video that shakes all over the place, and camera mounts are not perfect.
- You might want a camera that will accept LANC standard remote on/off and record/stop. Sony and others support LANC.

If I had a buck for every time I've belted up then had to unbuckle to turn the camera on, or driven onto the track forgetting to turn it on, I could probably buy a nice new camera by now.