Monday 18 October 2010

Help with Choosing a new HD Highdefinition Camcorder

My first camcorder was a Jvc gzmg36ek it cost £359.90 from currys.co.uk on 9 Dec 2006 the same day it was £399 in the currys store, currys used to sell it for £649 then £599 then £449 in july2006, you get a jvc 1yr guarantee with it. See jvc.co.uk for their products. for defects in workmanship or materials call jvc uk 020 8450 3282, jvc.co.uk/eshop.php for accessories
My camcorder had 2mp camera,  it had a 32x optical zoom which I needed to film airshows in fact itll be great when you can get even more than that as at times id have liked to zoom in more on things far away, the 30gb harddrive was plenty I never ran out of space even after filming for hours on a trip to Newyork it recorded roughly 1mb per second so a I minute video would use up say 60mb of disk space, it came with powerdirector software to edit videos,and cyberlink powerproducer to create movie disks,

I used it to film a Newyork trip in jan 2007, numerous Duxford airshows, the moon, planes flying around my home city, my pond wildlife, my sisters wedding, lightning, birds, a cotswolds trip and much much more.

To see some of the videos I made on the Jvc camcorder /// these are all standard definition recordings as youll see the picture quality is very good already so I cant wait to get a HD camcorder .

The reason I need a new Camcorder is because on 6oct10 its broken..i accidently stepped on it ! so it lasted just under 4 years.I also lost the instruction manual during a trip to scotland in 2008 so my advice is photocopy your paper manual so you have a backup incase you loose the manual.
I phoned currys on 02084503282 they said dkavs.co.uk in horley nr gatwick £34.08 for an estimate incuding postage then £80 to fix plus parts
then I called jvc europe on 0208450 3282 they said call consumer support on 0845 310 8000
they said sontec electronics norfolk 01603 483675 or
Peterborough video service 01733 328888 £25 call out fee to collect it, then if its under £50+vat theyll do the repair, if its more theyll call and say part prices labour about £45 she recons.
Booked job no 15*** for monday 11oct10 they collected my broken camcorder ( I called them on wed6oct10 415pm) 12oct they said its £111 to fix I decided not to do that as the jvc camcorder is now 4 years old so I may as well buy a new camcorder thats better than the one ive been using.

So my search began on the websites of popular uk electrical shops like currys.co.uk after seeing what features are available I decided the Features I want are

  1. full hd 1920x1080 recording which is 4-5 times more detail than standard recording on a camcorder
  2. as close to 32x optical zoom or better
  3. simultanious video & photo capture
  4. Optical Image Stabilisation to correct hand-shake
  5. a remote control so when showing people my recordings on a tv I can sit away from the camcorder and tv
  6. 50 frames per second
  7. wind noise canceller
  8. progressive scanning 50frames per sec twice as much info as interlaced scanning,
  9. extended warranty option should I choose to pay extra for one

Now ideally ill find a camcorder with all these features but after many hours searching I cant find one built with all these features in 1 product so ill have to choose a camcorder that comes closest to giving me the features I want.
The Camcorder im thinking to buy is the Panasonic hdc-hs60 by looking at its manual online i can see that 4 camcorders are basically the same model ( the sd60 comes with no storage built in /the tm60 has built in memory of 16gb /hs60 is 120gb hdd , & the hdc-tm55 is the 4th model.
Using price comparison websites on 18october 2010 I found the following prices for the Panasonic hdc-hs60eb-k
( use http://www.x-rates.com/calculator.html to convert from 1 currency to another eg this shows £400 sterling/british pounds as being worth $635.46 american dollars on 18oct10.

a3.plugonit.co.uk £399.99 plus £5 postage when I went to pay using paypal it says hughes tv and audio trading as hughes direct requires a phone number to complete this order so ive asked them to explain who they are ! Theyre based at 259 felixtowe road,ipswich,suffolk,ip3 9bn tel 0844 871 2131,
pixmania.co.uk £399 plus £7.80plus , Amazon.co.uk sold by hughes direct £419.99 price has gone up £20 In 1 day !, Directtvs.co.uk £436.97, Simplyelectronics.co.uk £439.95, Panamoz.com £439.99, Digitalrev.com £449.99, Dixons.co.uk £455.85 , Onestop-digital.com £455.99 , Currys hdc-hs60eb-k £469, Tesco.com £469.97, Argos £469.99, Pcworld.co.uk £469.99,(was £649.99 18feb10-7apr10), Dabs.com £470.88, Jacobsdigital.co.uk £479.99, Jessops.com £499,Marks and spence £599,Warehouseexpress.com £599
This shows that you must shop around prices can vary by hundreds of pounds, lower down I list price comparison websites to use.

The Panasonic hdc-hs60eb-k has these features
hd ( high definition recording) 25xoptical up to *35x with Intelligent Zoom technology this can be extended to 35x with no loss of recorded resolution. o.i.s, wind noise canceller, touchscreen lcd,
2hour battery says computer shopper july2010, Review on reevoo by andrew derby says 5mp photos ? ,no remote control, can take photos while recording, awards its got include computer shopper magazine best buy july 2010, HA recording 17mbps is its best recording mode, 2h18 to recharge battery, lithium battery is £52 on amazon ..the same as the one that comes with the camcorder..2hour battery. ( tip go to the manufactures website and look at the products brochure/instructions manual to get in depth detail of the features on a camcorder your interested in
on thu14oct10 I looked at a pdf from panasonic.co.uk for the hs60/tm60/sd60
then look on youtube.com for videos about the product your thinking of buying, I found videos on the hs60 showing how far it could zoom , how stabilisation looks, how good the image of footage shot with it is,

bad points.. no remote control, after i bought it i found out that if you pause a video you recorded with it you cant zoom in on it with the digital zoom eg i recorded a bird of prey flying some 30 meters away from me and i only just managed to record a couple of seconds of it flying away from me..i couldnt make out what type of bird it was so i wanted to zoom in on my recording to blow up the picture and see more detail..but you cant, it seems you can only do this on still photos...my old camcorder did let me zoom in digitally on a video so this is a bit of a let down.

Prices for the similar Panasonic camcorders I found are sd60 £320 amazon, hs60 £399.99 amazon,£394.99 kelkoo-amazon-littlewoods clearance, £393 for the sd60 at cclonline.com july2010, £399 jessops , sd card recording, jessops sell sandisk ultra 64gb sdxc cards for £269

The camcorders I looked at but decided not to buy include the ones below often due to too low optical zoom magnification numbers

1 canon legria hf s20 £715 amazon 10xoptical
2 canon legria hf s21 £1064 elitegadgets.com in july2010 computer shopper magazine, 10x optical
64gb built in memory,
3 sony hdrxr200ve £689 amazon 15xoptical
4 jvc gz-hd300bek £550 argos 20x optical
5 panasonic hdc-sdt750 12x optical , £1300 , 960x1080 not quite full hd, if filming 3d you cant use the 12x optical zoom ! 3” screen
6 sanyo xacti vpc-sh1 £350 23xoptical , 4mp stills,
7 jvc everio gz-x900ek £450 hd memory card *full hd 1920x1080 , 9mp stills, 8xoptical,
8 jvc evirio gz-hd620bek hd hdd *30xoptical , £400,120gb hdd,
9 sony handycam hdr-xr155 hd hdd £529 jessops, £530amazon £619 sony store , 120gb, simultanious video & photo capture *, 25x optical,steadyshot,3.1mp photos, 110min battery,
screen is touch operated so gets fingerprints,
10 jvc gz-mg680bek £408 shoppingbank.com 120gb 35xoptical 28h40 ultrafine recordings, camera ?
Widescreen,
11 Panasonic tm55 full hd 25xoptical, £359 amazon,*Optical Image Stabilisation to correct hand-shake
12 panasonic sd600 full hd *progressive scanning 50frames per sec twice as much info as interlaced scanning, *14.2mp photos, o.i.s, 12xoptical, 64gb sdxc card can hold 27.5hrs in he mode or 5hrs20 full hd
13 panasonic hs700 £844 amazon 12xoptical
14 panasonic sd700 full hd £615 amazon 12x optical
15 panasonic tm700 full hd £736 amazon 12xoptical is better than the canon legria hf s21 computer shopper says.

Features explained..
1920 horizontal pixels , 1080 vertical
64gb memory written at 24mb/s hold about 6hours video

Brands that make camcorders include

Sony
Panasonic.co.uk brochure search function didnt work on 14 oct 10, theyre best camcorders only have 12x optical zooms which isnt enough for me, im used to having up to 32x which you need to see things like birds 20 meteres away.
Jvc.co.uk cant narrowdown results by optical zoom magnification
Canon
Sanyo
Samsung

Shops I looked in to choose a new camcorder included..

Amazon.co.uk but you cant narrow down results by optical zoom magnification
Argos.co.uk again you cant narrow down results by optical zoom magnification
Ebay.co.uk you can narrow results by optical zoom magnification but I wont shop on ebay any more as they recently emailed me to say they changed my password due to suspicious activity on my account..naturally I wanted to know what suspicious activity they detected but they refused to explain anything to me ! So im not shopping on ebay again as they do not care about their customers.

http://www.frogcompare.co.uk/
is a price comparison site
http://www.google.co.uk/products is a price comparison service which was called Froogle in the past
which is a well liked uk retailer
Kelkoo.co.uk is a price comparison site
Lowpriceshopper.co.uk is a price comparison site

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/shopping/ lets you compare prices

http://www.nextag.co.uk/ is a price comparison site
Pixmania.co.uk puts extras in your shopping basket you didnt ask for ! ( its part of the Dixons group )

http://www.pricerunner.co.uk/
is a price comparison site
priceterrier.com is a price comparison site

http://www.reevoo.com/ is a price comparison site

http://www.shopmos.co.uk/ is a price comparison site

http://www.uk.best-price.com/ is a price comparison site

http://www1.uk.shopping.com/ is a price comparison site



I recommend you use multiple price comparison sites as well as a few stores you know off the top of your head, you must shop around if you want to find the lowest price.

Due to the risk of damaging your camcorder you may want to buy an Extended warranty option...amazon has none, pixmania has 3 or 5 year options
but it excludes damages caused by accidents, lightning, floods, insufficient air flow or any other reason for which the manufacturer is not responsible; so id need to phone them and ask if accidently dropping a camcorder counts as an accident...if so theres no pint buying an extended warranty as thats what I want the cover for. Want this in writing from them before id buy.

After selecting the panasonic hs60 pixmania.co.uk says CUSTOMERS ALSO CHOSE:
  • An extended warranty (select after adding product to basket) if you click the extended warranty link it says they do 3 or 5 year extended warrantys but this doesnt show up in my basket !
After placing the hs60 in pixmania basket you then find a load of extras that cost more money in your basket that you didnt add ! You already get a manufacturers warranty so if the product fails in 1 year you get it replaced so this zen offer from pixmania at £33.72 is charging you for something you dont need.
Then they want another £8.50 for some loyalty card rubbish
they say Great reasons to get yourself a Zen Engagement
  • 1 Find it cheaper elsewhere and we’ll refund the difference! If you find the same new product available at a lower price on another UK website within seven days of your purchase, PIXmania will refund the difference!
  • 2 Get a full refund if your product breaks down. For up to one year after purchasing your product, you can return it to PIXmania and be credited the full cost price against any replacement product featured on our website! There’s no lengthy analysis and no repair – you’ll get a brand new product straight away!
  • 3 Up to 25% OFF a range of accessories! For one whole year after your purchase, take advantage of some great discounts on loads of essential accessories for your new product!
  • 4 Bored of your device? We’ll take it back and credit you with a gift voucher. PIXmania will buy back any product covered by the Zen Engagement so you can choose a brand new one!
  • 5 Get 50% OFF the VIPix card. Join the club today! VIPix customers get loads of great discounts: 50% OFF delivery costs, discounts on over 15,000 products and money OFF on a range of great services. You’ll also get priority treatment from our Customer and After-Sales Services!
  • 6 A problem? A question? We’re here to help! You can ask us all the questions you need about the product you’ve purchased. Simply send us an e-mail and we promise to get back to you within 48 hours.
Click here to see the full terms & conditions of the Zen Engagement.
By this point ive had enough with pixmania.co.uk and no longer want to shop with them.

Final buying Options

Amazon-littlewoods clearance £394 tel 0844 8118114 plus £3.95 post I phoned them to check the product is new and not refurbished and was told it is new so I went to amazon.co.uk and ordered it on 19th october 2010
pixmania £399 plus £7.80 post
a3.plugonit.co.uk £399.99 plus £5post I emailed themat 427pm 18october theyve not replied by 254pm 19thoctober & ive found it slightly cheaper so im not buying from them.
amazon £420

Extras ill also need to buy include a hdmi mini cable ( page 36 of the pdf instruction manual I downloaded say youll need one) so I can connect the camcorder to a tv eg panasonic mini hdmi cable 1.5m £14.25 amazon , ill buy one at a later date as I dont have a hd tv yet.
Ill also need an Additional battery for the hs60 the vw-vbk180 has a max recording time of 1h45
or the vw-vbk360 has a max 3h25 recording time .Again ill buy that at a later date.
25oct10 vw-vbk360 on amazon is £85.79 (3.6V,3580mAh,13.0Wh)

The Same as the battery on the camcorder.. genuine VW-VBK180E-K £50.84 amazon.co.uk 3.6v 1790mAh,6.5Wh

REPLACEMENT FOR PANASONIC VW-VBK180 CAMCORDER BATTERY (2000MAH)
battery-locator.co.uk £34.99 plus £3.99 shipping if order under £100
batteryupgrade.co.uk £34.28 free post
digi-quick.co.uk £24.99 plus £1.99 post 2yr waraanty
http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/iloveshop!/ advert with some french language £12.88 /eur 14.49plus £9.77post , £15.99 1yr warranty free post from hongkong
http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/u-shop/ £15.15 /$23.74 , £15.19 1 yr warranty free post from hong kong
http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/batteryebuy/ £12.44 free post 1yr warranty

elitegadgets.com genuine vw-vbk360e-k £74.42 plus £3.99 post
amazon.co.uk £85.79
I need more batterys for my Panasonic hdc-hs60 as they only last about 1 hour so on 25oct10 445pm gmt I buy 3 vw-vbk180-k batterys from myworld.ebay.co.uk/batterybuy for $19.50 each so thats $58.50 total the advert says that $19.50 is £12.44 approximately but when I go to pay paypal exchange rate is £1 = $1.536 so im charged £38.07 not the £37.32 the ebay ad said...ebay/paypal grabbing more money off its users.
I hope this info helps you choosing a HD Camcorder goodluck
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI

1 comment:

RT said...

This is great. Really very helpful. Thanks for sharing. It's a real struggle to choose from all the camcorder options out there.