Camcorder Shopping Experience

We finally decided this holiday season that the extra several hundred dollars required to purchase a video camera is just not going to magically appear in our budget. We've been discussing the strong desire to have one for several years, but have just never felt like it was a convenient time financially. The amount of one-time expenses we've incurred since moving to our house has been staggering. However, with Isaiah coming in January and Gabriel and Asher getting bigger, I just couldn't wait any longer. I painted the picture, for Elizabeth, of us sitting around middle-aged wishing above all else that we'd just spent that pittance on a camera so we could cherish the invaluable memories of our boys. Then I went and did several hours of internet research before departing for Best Buy.

What I found in my research was surprising. With the new DVD and hard-drive camcorders out, I just assumed they were the desirable ones and that the extra money they cost over the older digital tape style would be easily made up by their convenience and performance. The reality is much different. The DVD and hard drive cameras run about $500 right now, while the DV tape units are $300. The tape has a higher quality recording due to less compression, and fare at least as well in size, weight, and battery life. So then what I was expecting to find was that the tape units don't interface to a computer as well. Wrong. I bought a Panasonic that came with a USB2.0 port right on it. I play the tape in the camera while the free Windows Movie Maker software captures the video. I've heard that if you feel bound to spending more you should go hard drive and avoid DVD like the plague. There is very little ability to edit the video, the DVD's aren't cheap and have a lot of compatibiltiy issues, and they are only 30 min long. They are apparently for the user who just wants to shoot an event and keep the DVD as is. I intend to shoot a lot footage and then save the good parts. Who wants to end up with boxes full of unedited video to search through for days to find that one funny moment you have in mind?

Movie Maker allows me to cut the video into clips and add narration, screen titling, music, pictures, transitions, and decent video effects. The black and white effect is nice, as is slow motion and one that makes the video look like it is from an old film. The editing looks to be a lot of work, but it is amazing to have such tools for such little money. I imagine that purchased software is a lot more intuitive to use, but I think that starting out with Movie Maker will provide me with more features than I'll ever use for home videos. The plan is to make highlight videos with it that edit out the boring footage, add some background music, and then to record them to Video CD. Eventually we will probably make DVDs, but right now we don't have the hardware for that. Video CD's play in most DVD players, so I think that will work out fine for now.

Initial Post

Check one, two... Is this thing on?

This is my very first blog post. I'm excited about the idea of becoming a famous blogger one day like AllahPundit or Michelle Malkin, but the reality is that I'll probably put a few pics of the kids up and let months pass between posts about nothing. We'll see. I'd love to write some posts about politics, education, economics, and theology. I'd love to share some homeschooling experiences when that begins in the fall of 2007. I'd even like to see Elizabeth do some posting, too. I guess we'll start with some pics of the kids and see where my time and energy lead.