OT - cheap digital camcorder

[Dave Baker]

I really fancy a very cheap basic camcorder to be able to film my animals getting up to their usual highjinks and upload it to the web/youtube for friends to see. I missed a cracker this morning when I let my little chicken, Clare, out of her coop for the day. She's been perfectly fine with my 80 lb labrador Sammie for the last year until he nearly ran into her a couple of weeks ago and had to lauch himself into the air over her to avoid mowing her down. Since then she's had the right hump with him.

This morning she set off across the lawn to go foraging up at the farm, passed him rolling about on the grass, got about 10 feet past him, thought better of it, turned round, launched herself at his head, pecked him firmly on the nose and then strutted off again. Sam yelped and ran howling to the back door.

I don't want or need HD, 640 x 480 would be fine but they all seem to come with HD anyway. Then it seems I really do need an SDHC card or you can't actually record more than a few seconds of anything.

The Vivitar 508HD is about as cheap as I can see online for £20. I can't see me getting too upset if it isn't fantastic quality for the price of a bottle of scotch. I guess it'll also take even better still pictures than my faithful old Fuji Finepix 1400 1.3 megapixel which cost a bloody fortune in comparison 15 years ago.

Any reason to spend more for such a basic need?

[Another Dave]

I don't know, but

is worth a look. His youtube videos are well made, informative and entertaining.

Another Dave

[stuart noble]

IME the audio is often the weak point

[whisky-dave]

I guess provided your there with teh camera at the time of whatevere takes place that should be OK, but what if the action is further away or you want ed to leave it set uop to see what happens at night.

Most people (excluding myself) have better camera equipment in their phones nowadays. I brought a swann IP cam from maplins years ago and set up this, using a m ac and evocam software.

[Dave Liquorice]

What might be the biggest snag is how long it takes to boot up and be recording from cold. Especially as you're wanting to capture unpredictable live events.

Are there any cheap Go-Pro clones that you could wear like a head torch and leave running. Then when something happens you switch into camera operator mode (ie stand still, kep you head still, other than gently following the action) and get semi reasonable footage.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Always is with a mic on the camera.

[stuart noble]

The twin mics on my point and shoot are fine for family stuff but the mono mic on a similarly priced camera was truly awful

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Mics on the camera range from poor to dreadful. Is that better? ;-)

[Dave Liquorice]

Depends what you want and the critical distance for the enviroment.

But of course every one thinks sound is simple but we know different don't we Dave. B-)

[News]

In message , Dave Baker writes

I bought a basic Flip a couple of years ago, and it does exactly what it says on the tin. Simple. Point and shoot. Very, very basic controls. USB connection. Many used models on eBay now.