I have been doing research and experiments with the various options before I made up my mind and purchased DCR HC90 ( Sony Handycam) 3.3 Megapixel.
These days we do have many brands available with so many options that it is difficult to choose and proper information for that particular model is hard to get . As a normal user I think the following should be looked into.
What is the use: Well we use mainly handycams normally at special events and indoors ( Either night or day). So the handycam should have good LOW LIGHT PERFORMANCE. This is the foremost quality I feel we should give preference to.
Ease of use: As a normal user I do not want to keep setting focus etc.. for the functions , I need a handycam which has most of the settings automatic, So that I concentrate on recording rather than settings.
The Data storage. I had been thinking of buying a DVD Handy cam, because of the fact that I will get my DVD format straight away, but hold on , there are small riders if you go deep. The recording medium is Mpeg in DVD handycams and DV on mini tape type. The conversion of DV to mpeg is done by handy cam in DVD handy cams and there is a quality loss, also the data is not so manageable. One of my friends bought DVD handycam of Sony and I compared the DVD quality with TRV 33/ DCR HC 40. It was really quite low. The quality I could see was slightly better than that of my Digital camera movie clip DSC P10 ( the recording in digital camera is also done in mpeg). I used Pinnacle 9.3 to improve the quality but still it was not up to the mark. So I will prefer mini DV type where the DV data on tape can be easily manupulated and you can make CD/SVCD/DVD as you like. The DVDs for handy cam are also too costly as compared to mini DV tapes.
Megapixel: I think this is a good measure of the quality however read carefully. The Handycam Ads will say 1 Megapixel, this is for the still shot not for movie, for the movie it will be typical 800 K ( like sony DCR HC 40). Here I think all the handycams say similar claims. The Preferable good quality will be 1 Megapixel ( 800 K moving)
5.Zoom: Do not get fooled by Digital zoom, as this will be done by any handycam by downgrading the quality. So Look for Good Optical Zoom. Min 10 X should be there.
- CCD. Charged couple device. The bigger the size the better the quality.
There are some other points which can be considered, and could be explained If I knew about it.
I have tried TRV 33, DCR HC 40, HC 42E Etc.. in addition to what I have HC90. I found HC 90 to be the best, however costlier also. For a normal user if he is not dead against SONY brand HC42 type will be the best buy.
Well after recording none of the handycam supliers provide a good software to manage your data for DVD making. I am using Pinnacle 9.3 and ULEAD it has been working fine for me . There are other softwares which when I get experience I will try providing some info.
U need Firewire port( IE1394) connection on your PC, most of handycams have this port . This is not very expensive if you are spending around 40, 000 on handycam.
PC should be Min 512 MB RAM, Free space of 50 GB.
YOu can write to me Pervinder@rediffmail.com in case u need some more inputs.