Entertainment Center: TVs, Stereos, VCRs and DVDs - Any modern camcorder with these features?
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core
11-24-07, 06:06 AM
I have recently dropped my Digital8 camcorder and likely destroyed the CCD, but that is the subject of another post. It's dead, period.
Now I am looking for a MiniDV replacement and thus far have discovered that they just don't make consumer grade camcorders like they used to.
All I want is the following, and these were all available on the cheapest Digital8 camcorder I could find when I walked into Best Buy 10 years ago and got this one (Sony DCR-TRV460):
- Night vision _with_ IR illumination LEDs (modern ones seem to have night vision but no illumination source)
- Time lapse recording (to film a blooming flower)
- Remote control
- Manual focus, exposure, white balance controls. Even if impossibly buried in menus and difficult to use. I'm not picky. Just a way to turn off everything automatic to match up split-screen footage.
- Firewire
- Ability to record a signal from an outside source
Is that so much to ask nowadays? And I'm not a videophile -- my eyes can't tell the difference between VHS and DVD, even though I do video editing. I couldn't care less about the quality, but I do need those tiny features which _used_ to be standard.
Is there a MiniDV camera out there which does what I want, or should I just start buying used Dig8's on ebay?
-core
Now I am looking for a MiniDV replacement and thus far have discovered that they just don't make consumer grade camcorders like they used to.
All I want is the following, and these were all available on the cheapest Digital8 camcorder I could find when I walked into Best Buy 10 years ago and got this one (Sony DCR-TRV460):
- Night vision _with_ IR illumination LEDs (modern ones seem to have night vision but no illumination source)
- Time lapse recording (to film a blooming flower)
- Remote control
- Manual focus, exposure, white balance controls. Even if impossibly buried in menus and difficult to use. I'm not picky. Just a way to turn off everything automatic to match up split-screen footage.
- Firewire
- Ability to record a signal from an outside source
Is that so much to ask nowadays? And I'm not a videophile -- my eyes can't tell the difference between VHS and DVD, even though I do video editing. I couldn't care less about the quality, but I do need those tiny features which _used_ to be standard.
Is there a MiniDV camera out there which does what I want, or should I just start buying used Dig8's on ebay?
-core