Videocamera Recommendations?

September 1, 2009 8:47 AM

Can anyone recommend a good videocamera for a person who knows nothing about video?

It would be used primarily for capturing new-baby-related footage, so I'm guessing something pretty user-friendly & compact might be nice, but I know literally nothing about videocameras at all & have been feeling overwhelmed by all the info out there!

posted by oh really to Technology (6 answers total)

We just got a Flip as a wedding gift and its pretty awesome.

Very compact, records 2 hours of ultra HD video, integrated USB plug to dump the videos on your computer, very small and compact and easy to use.
posted by Seppaku at 8:49 AM on September 1, 2009

I have a Flip as well, and came in to recommend it. I haven't even had problems on my Mac using the Flip, so that's something to consider (don't know which OS you are using).
posted by misha at 8:50 AM on September 1, 2009

Thirding the Flip. They're cheap, too!
posted by 5ean at 8:52 AM on September 1, 2009

nthing Flip.
Never used one but I bought it for my not so tech savvy sis and she loves it.
posted by special-k at 9:09 AM on September 1, 2009

Response by poster: We have a secondhand IBM laptop running Windows 2003 & a G4 tower running OSX, so glad to hear that it works well on both systems!
posted by oh really at 9:27 AM on September 1, 2009

I played with a friend's Flip and I really don't understand the love it gets. 720p HD video is increasingly becoming a standard feature on compact digital cameras, like this ~$225 Canon, more versatile device that is still easy to use for just a little more. They only make sense to me if you are only comparing them against a camcorder, which is typically more expensive and much less convenient (transferring DV video at 1x real time over firewire just blows).
posted by Good Brain at 10:48 AM on September 1, 2009