Camcorder suggestions?

I would love a "to the eye" viewfinder as well, but the starting price is about $1,100.

The screen on most cameras is almost useless outdoors. They origionally had viewfinders on lower end camcorders, but they had a lot of problems, so they stopped making them.

I like my Canon VIXIA HF M40, but it's close to $350.

I buy stuff on Amazon, review their books, and participate in their book forum. I see the $248. price as well.

       I also have the Canon Vixia and it shoots video in true HD 1080p. The only draw back is that you had better have a few batteries on hand as the camera likes its power but most of the new cameras do.. I like the touch screen on the camera no small buttons to have to paly with. Other than that the camrea has the best video I have seen. I did a few weeks researching what camera to buy and I came up with this camera. I got mine at Best But for $299.00. Hope this helps

How is the touchscreen on the cannon?

I have a horrible time with touchscreens, I have a hard time with the touch pad on my laptop.

The first review I found on youtube had nothing good to say about the Sony.  Shame, I had found a bundle for $10 more that had everything I needed. 

I'm looking at this Cannon http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Canon+-+VIXIA+HF+R400+HD+Flash+Memory+Camcorder/7930094.p?id=1218862382689&skuId=7930094

Hi Garfield -

I checked B and H Video for your camera, and the price is the same - $248.00.  This camera records to memory sticks only, with no internal memory, which is okay.  Their next model in this line is priced $278 (CX230) which includes an 8 gig internal drive and card slots as well.

I have a Canon Vixia HFR 20 that takes great video, has internal drive and 2 slots for cards, so the recording time is about 11 hours.  Both cameras take HD 1920 x 1090 video, and the mics are comparable.  One drawback is the touch screen display.  It's small in the first place, and when you have buttons and icons and bars squeezed on there, you better hope your aim is good so you can activate the button you're trying to hit.  The Canon has a soft touch that sometimes seems like you have to push hard to activate the button.  I don't know about the Sony screen.  All I know is that I detest that touch screen because I have big fingers and I sometimes have to use a fingernail to hit the mark.  As others have said, the display screen is worthless in bright sun.  I see the zoom slider is on top of the camera like mine. It has variable speed zoom, but the slider is so small and it's traveling range is so short, that it's almost impossible to use the variable zoom function.  I hope you have a steady hand, because these camcorders are so lightweight, it's hard to hold them steady.  The image stabilization helps alot.  Read up on the way Sony stores the data as it is being recorded.  I remember several angry customers on the feedback lines commenting about the camera stores the file in a new folder each time you put the recording in the pause mode and start it again.  Canon keeps the group of scenes together until you stop the camera.  You might want to read up on that.  I am a diehard fan of Sony for years, but after I placed these specs side by side, I chose the Canon.

d  Thenthose         

The first thing I did was order a large battery made by Cannon from Amazon. It's a shame to have to pay $80. for a battery that should have come with the VIXIA in the first place. It does, however, last a very long time ( a week's trip/vacation of shooting).

I have the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS10 which sounds like it meets all of the criteria.

I also have the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS20 (slightly more zoom range) and would highly recommend it. 

Note that it is a point and shoot camera that works great as a digital camera AND video camera.  Shaped like a still camera, not a camcorder. No viewfinder, but 3" nice and bright viewing screen.

The newest model, the ZS25, has full 1080p video and a 20x zoom - recently seen at Costco for $229

          The touch screen on the Canon works fine for me but then again I have small fingers.

Here is the link to the Panasonic

http://www.amazon.com/Panasoni...7G#productPromotions

It is so frustrating.  The Canon has better optical zoom  (32 vs the Panasonic's 20) and a mic jack.  The Panasonic does not have a touchscreen and takes 16mp still pics compared to the 2mp of the Canon.

I guess it is a market share thing why you can get a point and shoot camera that records video as well as a camcorder but you can't get a camcorder that takes stills as good as a point and shoot.  Moving pictures is the main thing I want this for it just seems like it should take higher Mp pics than my phone.

So far the Canon is the only camcorder or camera I have found with a mic jack.  I don't know for certain that I would ever get an external mic but if you have ever listened to a wind swept run by on YouTube you know it would be nice to have the option to add a wind deflector.

If this had a mic jack I would probably go with it http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/...1k_hd_camcorder.html

38x optical zoom, 1080 P/60, 10 Mp stills and no touchscreen.

This brings up a frustrating trend in electronics.  I think most things are not only small enough they are too small.  I would love a slightly larger camcorder that had a mic jack, bigger battery and was built sturdier.

Thanks to all of you who have read and offered suggestions. I  appreciate them.

I agree 100%. Too small, plus ramming-in features you never use can be frustrating. My larger Panisonic VHS-C camcorder was easier to hold and keep steady, especially with the eye viewer. However, compared to digital, the battery was very heavy. If my digital camera failed, I might go back to my VHS-C camera and just convert the tape to DVDs every hour's worth of recording. For now, new tapes are easy to get on eBay for 1/3rd the origional prices.

We have a vixia at work which is a great video recorder.  Much larger than the sony in the original post.  Touch screen is a true touch screen and requires med to small fingers to work controls.  It eats batteries.  The sd cards make transfers a snap.

i just bought the Sony for a trip.  It is insanely light weight.  It is also physically much smaller and only has one sd card slot but a 64 gig card can hold a lot of video.  The screen is not a true touch screen. There is a small button and "joystick" near the edge.  This is what you use to control functions and settings.  I was able to place the sony in my suit pocket with the 4.5 hour battery with no problem.  It did everything I wanted/needed to for the trip.

One thing that turns me off about the Sony is the built in USB cable.  Granted it is nice to not have to look for a cable to hook it up.  I am just worried about what happens if that cable fails.  If I read the manual right it does not come with a AC adapter. It charges via the USB cable.

Is there a regular USB port you can plug a cable in to if the integrated one breaks?

Does it have a mic jack?

I have read the manual but I am sure we all have had items that did not exactly match the documentation before.

My parents have used Sony cameras and camcorders for years and loved them.  I was close to pulling the trigger on it when I found a video review of the Sony. It's low light (meaning not in direct sun light or a well light room) was awful.  The motor noise from the zoom was loud also.

No mic jack

you can plug in an optional ac charger/power supply on the right hand side of the camera

to charge battery or run camera on ac

there is a micro usb port to handle data transfers on the right hand side as well but it can't charge thebattery

micro hdmi port on keft side under the view screen

I had no trouble shooting in a circus tent at night but it may be my expectations were actually lower than what the camera provided

no issues with zoom noise either but this may be subject to interpretation as well

only issue I had with the mic was someone else was shooting something and they didn't zoom in on the main subject and it resulted in a lot of background noise.  I attribute this to a user iq error rather than a problem with the camcorder.

I'm looking at this one.

http://actionshotcam.com/shop/

I actually don't like the touch screen on the Panasonic, I regularly snap pictures when I don't want to.

As far as the zoom, one downside of a huge zoom ratio is you have to be in pretty bright light for a decent picture at maximum zoom, you really lose a lot of light at long lens settings.

I picked mine more for still shots than video, so I was looking more for quality in that mode.

On the subject of video...I encourage people who have children and grandchildren growing up to invest in a digital VIDEO camera (a regular digital camera that is able to shoot ocassional video is not what I mean). I have 41 years of my kids and grandkids growing up...1972 to 1986 on Super8 film (now on DVD), 1986 to 2011 on VHS tape (soon to all be on DVD), and the new stuff on digital (on DVD with back-ups). This is priceless stuff, IMO. I fear that most of the digital photos being taken today will be "lost" in La La Land in the future.

$198

Yea I saw that too. The Sonys are on sale until June.  Really glad I did not buy it last week.

NOW I see $198.