I think I have found THE camcorder

[Nintendo_Fanboy]

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/478691-REG/Samsung_SCHMX10_SC_HMX10c_HD_Camcorder.html

It has a mic input and headphone jack!!! Plus its under 500! AND HD!!! The only bad things are it is flash no HDD, and no Night Mode from what I can see. But it does have a built in light.

What do you guys think of this camcorder? I think along with a 8GB SDHC card I would rock.

[sonnyfromda02]

I wouldn't recommend Samsung camcorders. I had very bad experience with their customer support when my wife's Samsung camcorder broke. They didn't want to help me, they lied, and they told me I didn't know what I was doing.

[stefanocasadei]

no manual focus ring :(

[UndergroundLairProductions]

This is not "THE" camcorder. It's "A" camcorder. Nothing special. Yeah, it's in HD, but I'd take a GL-2 over that any day.

[google550]

I wouldn't be so quick to shoot this down, guys.

Yes, upon further inspection, it DOES have manual focus. While it's Samsung, it seems to be cheap and nicely made.

Here are my problems: No accessory shoe, and it's a memory chip. I just don't like the idea of not having my footage on a hard format.

I DEFINITELY would not buy this thing without taking my laptop over to the store, and insist that I try this puppy out, but who knows, it might be the next HV30.

[Herk522]

i dont like that it uses a hard drive. especially with only 8gb and hd. that will probably fill up fast.

[ibend1]

but... even though some might rather have a gl2 or hv30... look at the price

[SethJohnson]

Beyond any tech specs, people wont take you as seriously when your camera is the size of your hand. Do you feel me?

[Videopia]

- No manual focus ring? Are you seriously complaining about that? Do ANY consumer camcorders have a manual focus ring? (...by "manual focus ring" I assume you mean true mechanical control, not just an infinite ring that controls an electronic servo, because ring controls servo vs. rocker controls servo = same same)

- This is not a GL2 class camera. And it's a good $350 less than the HV30.

- And if you want a big camcorder to impress the girls, you could always get this MiniDV piece of crap (even comes with a "For commercial use only" sticker on the bottom)
http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/images/models/ag-dvc7.jpg

All in all, for $450, the camera you link to looks pretty good (mic jack, HD - I can't think of any other cameras with those two features in this price range). As mentioned, editing is going to be the real question you need to answer before you buy.


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[Nintendo_Fanboy]

I found a couple others similar.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/539222-REG/Canon_2685B001_FS_11_16GB_Hybrid_Flash.html
This is another. It has a mic input, plus twice the memory. But no HD...

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/475468-REG/Sony_DCRSR200_DCR_SR200_Digital_Camcorder.html
This one is ok... It says it has a mic input via shoe... I don't see one... but it does have infared mode which I think rocks.

[Ronster]

Videopia-
What camera is that, because it sure doesn't look like a piece of crap...

[Videopia]

Panasonic DVC7 or something. It wasn't crappy just by itself. It was a single CCD MiniDV camera just like a billion others and it performed exactly like what you'd expect. It was light as a feather - just a plastic shell, really. And, honestly, that camera probably was a ticket into places and under police tape that you wouldn't otherwise be able to go with, say, a Canon HV30, because professionals use big cameras, right?!