Are you sure you want to buy your own camcorder right now? Every school I’ve looked into provides students with access to all sorts of equipment. Full Sail advertises industry current tools for all the students. This would give you access to camcorders of similar to far greater quality than what you are thinking of buying. You will undoubtedly have access to the Panasonic P2 series of camcorders (or an equivalent tapeless workfow camcorder.) And should be able to try out a variety of camcorder models & brands during the course of your studies.
Now if Full Sail requires you own a camcorder of your own, they will already have established standards & suggested models. But if they don’t require a comcorder, I’d suggest waiting till graduation to spend more than a couple of thousand dollars for a camcorder. During your time in school they will provide some of the best equipment in common use in the industry for you to do your assignments. Then when you graduate in four years, you’ll know exactly what you’ll require for your career. And for the same money in four years, camcorders will have advanced in capacity & quality. Not to mention that issues of HD formats and economical tapeless workflows will have been resolved.
So that’s my advice. Unless you require a prosumer camcorder right now, you’d be better off waiting. Either put the cash in savings or use it for budgets in all the student productions ahead of you. And good luck with school, I’d even consider Full Sail if I could find the money & the time.
