# Please recommend a Camcorder **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 13, 2007, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-camcorder/429793 "2007-12-13T00:52:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2007, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-camcorder/429793/1 "2007-12-13T00:52:02Z")
New baby on the way so I guess I gotta run out and buy a camcorder. I have no idea what media is best or whether HD is worth it. I don’t intend to shoot the great American film so I would prefer to keep the cost below about $1000. I know this is IMHO but if you would like to include some GQ type info to get me up to speed on the ins and outs of camcorders generally, it would be appreciated. Thanks, in advance. ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2007, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-camcorder/429793/2 "2007-12-13T01:15:21Z")
We just bought a JVC a month or so ago. It’s a 30 hour hard drive, but not HD. I paid only $450 or so at Best Buy. I like it, but it’s not great. It does however do just what we need for the baby. However, if you’re willing to spend near $1000 you could get a camcorder that records in HD, you will just have a hard time finding a way to show other people except on the computer. ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2007, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-camcorder/429793/3 "2007-12-13T02:49:27Z")
Can’t you just burn a DVD? I assumed you could just download to desktop and burn a dvd. Is this not correct? There are so many media it is confusing. MiniDVD, HDD, Flash, DV-R arrrgh… ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2007, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-camcorder/429793/4 "2007-12-13T13:01:55Z")
Don’t know how the high def camcorders work. Honestly I asked right before we bought ours and got little response as well. I ended up just going out and playing with them. I wanted one with a hard drive so I wouldn’t have to worry about buying DVDs or anything like that. I believe that you can burn straight to DVD on mine, but I copy it to the computer so we can chose which parts to put on DVD.