Canon camcorder for around 600$

1. Alex Hanneman
   Member

   

   More or less need to stick on this budget of 600$.

   I have been considering getting the Canon HG20 -- but I'm not sure since it slightly out-dated and is hard to find by retailers.

    

   Another one I was considering was the Canon HF S200.

   I would like the camera to have a good manual focus lens for DOF, a reasonable amount of optical zoom, HD 1080p quality, and possibly the ability to do an alright job in semi-low light conditions.

    

    

   Posted 1 year ago #

2. EarlC
   Moderator

   

   HV 40 tape-based has always received positive comments.

   Posted 1 year ago #

3. Alex Hanneman
   Member

   

   Do you know of any similar that use flash memory or HDD storage?

    

    

   (Not sure if HDD storage is always safe though, with moving parts and all)

   Posted 1 year ago #

4. jjmmargate
   Member

   

   Alex: I own an HF S200, I am happy with it. I don't think manual focus has any control over DOF, I believe that aperture settings controls that. Plenty of manual and automatic controls for a newbie like me to play with and learn. With good lighting you can achieve near broadcast quality results with this camera. Outdoor shots are crisp and colors are excellent. From the reviews I read before I purchased the camera, Canon's consumer camcorders for the most part are not tops in low light conditions, but still very good. If most of your shooting will be under sub-par lighting conditions you may want to check out Sony or Panasonic, otherwise I'd say you will be very happy with the Canon. I know I am. As Earl said, the HV40 is also another good one, but don't confuse tape based with HDD. The HV40 records to tape, not a hard drive. There are pro and cons for both flash and tape, so do your research. I went with the flash based for the speed and ease of transferring files to my PC for editing. It also helps to have a PC (or Mac) with a fast processors, good graphics card and plenty of memory. Hope this helps..

    

   Posted 1 year ago #

5. hmueller
   Member

   

   I have both the Canon HV40 and the Canon HF S21, which is the same as the S200 optics-wise. Both shoot excellent video the HV40 in HDV and the S200 in AVCHD. I chose the newer Canon because of the large LCD screen which is important as one grows older ;-) I use both together when I do event video. When I have to do something quikly, I will grab the HV40 as I am more familiar with it, and I find the touch screen more finicky to use.

   I believe the S200 is being replaced by a newer, more expensive model, so now you can get good deals on the S200 so that seems to be a good buy. It has a smaller accessory foot which can present some problems. 

   Posted 1 year ago #

6. tylerknight
   Member

   

   i have used the hfs100 which shoots to sdhc cards and it has done me very well as a high end consumer hd camera. if you are worried about depth of field just look into a 35mm adapter they along with the hfs100 produce some very cinematic looks.

   Posted 1 year ago #

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