I'm considering purchasing a new camcorder to take video's of my grandchildren's baseball and soccer games.

I'm looking at the Samsung miniDVD type as well as the SD memory card type.

I'm assuming the SD memory card type would be better because it should be able to hold more video depending on what size SD card I have in the camera...am I thinking correctly?

The miniDVD is only 1.4G and each disk will hold 30 minutes of video.

Am I looking at this in the right way? Better yet, what advantages and disadvantages do both types offer?

I want to keep my cost down too....and both types are on sale now for $200.

Would like to hear from as many people as I can, the camcorders are on sale rigth now for a very short period. Thanks to all who respond.

Think of how inconvient changing miniDVD's is going to be, every 30 minutes. If I had to choose between the two I would get the SD camera because in the future there will be higher capacity SD cards, so long as the camera supports them. Can you post a link to both cameras?

Personally if I had to get a camera on the cheap I would get the Canon ZR950, it uses mini DV cassettes that can record 80 minutes of digital video. Its 240 bucks and has free shipping and no sales tax if you out of state, amazon.com and newegg.com both have the camera for the same price, might be worth checking out. It also has a SDHC memory slot that can capture video and still photos.

Both formats have their drawbacks. No current home video player can play back videos directly from SD or SDHC cards; playback of videos recorded on SD camcorders must either be played back directly from the same camcorder on which the original recording was made or be transferred to a computer system and converted and authored onto a recordable DVD. And SD/SDHC camcorders can only record up to 4GB per video file (movie) due to the limitations of the FAT and FAT32 filing systems SD and SDHC cards use.

Mini-DVD discs, on the other hand, are limited to 30 minutes of recording at HQ (or XP) bitrates; thus, degraded, lower quality settings are required just to achieve any significant length of recording on a single disc.

Samsung SC-DC173U MiniDVD Camcorder

Model #: SAM SCDC173

Samsung SC-MX10 SD Card Digital Camcorder - this one is out of stock now.

Hi Burnselk;I have a Fuji A 800 right now it has a 1GB SD card but can handle up to a 4GB,The 1 GB SD will do 28 minutes of video with audio.
I waited for a sale & paid $125.00 + tax at Office Max.
btw did you ever get a dvd burned like you wanted.

Don't expect much in that price area, you'll get quite noisy and blurred video although DV would be a much better choice than DVD and SD/Memory since it compresses less than the other formats. Samsung makes quite poor camcorders in general, just look at the score over at Amazon.com . If I were you I'd grab a Panasonic GS320, its a solid camera with 3CCD and OIS but its ~100 more although I'd say that its so much more worth it...
http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-PV-G...0569156&sr=1-1
http://www.pana3ccduser.com/forumdisplay.php?f=6 - If you want some user commends or real life experiences.
//Danne

You still did not give us the actual links to the product pages on a reseller's website.

And picture quality wise, those two Samsungs deliver just about the poorest image quality of any consumer camcorder selling for $200 and up (they regularly sell for about $300 at full retail) due to their use of noisy sensors and mediocre-quality optics.

Do a Google search for "best camcorders" which will give links to reviews of different types to help determine which type best suits you as well as reviews to help choose within a particular type. I did this about a year ago and chose a Sony with 40 GB hard drive for about $600. This one cost me a little more than other types, but considering video quality, capacity and all other features this was the right choice for me. With hard drive models one simply transfers video to computer which may then be burned to regular DVD, copied to thumb drive or other portable media.

BTW it's also a good idea to go to BestBuy or other local store to actually look at and compare cameras you're considering. In my case I had narrowed it down to 2 cameras and found the Sony chosen to be sharper and brighter than the other camera considered.

[quote=cholla;2055875]Hi Burnselk;

Hi cholla, would it be safe to say a 4GB SD card would record about 2 hours of video?

That's a great buy, when did you buy it? And would you recomemd it? Do you like it and if so why?

No I haven't, I got side tracked and haven't done it yet, I'll be back at you for input on this matter in a few days cholla, thanks for asking. I haven't forgotten.

I'm out of town and this motel computer won't let me copy and paste the website URL.....sorry. Can do it for you when I get home on Thursday.

You do realize that A800 is a digital (still photo) camera?
//Danne

Yes. And most digital still cameras are not as competent for full-motion videos as an average motion-only digital camcorder: Most digital still cameras are fixed focus, not autofocus, for motion video recording. And most cannot zoom optically in video mode (and some cannot even zoom digitally).

I agree the Fuji A800 I have is not a camcorder.It has a video/audio mode.Called Movie Mode.This camera has zoom but this has to be set before starting the video record mode.the record can be stopped & the zoom adjusted again then started again.
This camera records in motion Jpeg at 30fps 320x240 pixels the sound is mono.
So I'm sure it lacks some of the features of a motion only digital camcorder.
What I wanted was a still digital camera but the audio/video it has is fine for my use.I'm happy with this camera.At $125 + tax & it had a bonus pack that had the 1 GB SD card,camera case ,cleaning kit & mini tripod.
I only have the 1 GB SD card so I don't know for sure if the 4GB card would give you 2 hours in theory it would.You better have some spare batteries to do 2 hours.The 28 minutes for the 1 GB card pretty well discharges the 2 AA rechargables that came with the camera.
it has a 3x optical zoom & a 6.9x digital zoom spec say combined total is 20.7x max.
So burnselk I like this camera but if you are looking for a full feature motion only camcorder this is not it .I think it would do a good job on kids sporting events.