Looking for a good video cam for vacation

[LinkA8A0A]

My wife and I are going to Disney in October and we were thinking of getting a video camera this time. We're not trying to drop a ton of money (under $800), so I wanted to see if there were any recommendations from people on here. Ideally, we'd like to have good battery life, decent storage, good zoom, HD and possibly night vision to record on rides and stuff.

[ddk632]

I use my DSLR for short family videos all the time, but it's a higher than your budget even used or refurbed. It works for me since I already take my camera anyway, and it already shoots video, so no need for an extra device.

For a video camera GoPro seems to be the standard these days.

Can't really help much there as I am not familiar with them. I don't know specs, but is would look for one that has high ISO settings which will be like "night vision" since it can pick up more light in darker areas.

When I went to Disney, I used ISO 16,000 - 25,600 regularly especially inside the rides and my shots and videos came out very nicely. I don't know if any GoPros will go that high on ISO though.

[LinkA8A0A]

What would you recommend as far as a good entry level DSLR camera?

[ddk632]

I am a Canon guy, so the Canon Rebel line is what I would suggest. T5i is the newest one, shoots video, and goes up to ISO 25,600 which is plenty for poorly lit environments. It retails for $850 with an 18-55 lens.

[Eat.Sleep.Race]

Nikon D3200, with a few lenses is $549. With case and memory card under $620! I love mine

[druu]

If you have no intentions of ever using interchangable lenses or do not care to carry any kind of heft with you the sony rx100 series of large sensor point and shoots will serve you very well for video. The latest model (the mark III) model is a huge improvement over the last two, all 3 versions do pretty well in low light as well. The camera has all the advanced manual features you could want if you one day want to go that route, or can go full auto if you don't have those intentions.

[GrussGott]

I'm no expert but I'd say you have to consider a few things: auto-focus, night shots and sound.

A decent video camera will have auto focus and that will make it way easy to "run and gun". Canon's Vixia are pretty good for cheap and panasonic has some great handy-cams too. The sony's have built-in projectors which is pretty cool but I hate their whole "buy these apps" after-the-fact thing. Anyway all these of those brands will make decent video cams that Auto-focus since your DSLR likely doesn't (or does it?)

Night shots will probably be better with a DSLR due to lenses, sensor size, etc you'll get better color saturation too ... so you could consider using your DSLR for that.

Sound is tough if you care - great sound makes great video but you may not need that if it's for kids and general use. If you do you can buy all kinds of shotgun or lavalier mics. If you're ok mixing in sound post-production the Zoom H1 makes for a great all-arounder that you can use for car video, etc

If it's purely for family use I'd be tempted to buy a sony handycam with built in projector.

[ddk632]

My 6D does autofocus during video but it is slow and pretty much the focusing part needs to be edited out for any reasonable use of the video. I do use a shotgun mic with it, since it records in stereo vs. mono for the built-in mic.

[Chewy734]

If you want a true video camera, and not a dSLR (which can be difficult to use as a full-time video camera), then I highly recommend this one (based on personal experience):

http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consum...s/vixia_hf_g20

You can find it for $900 almost everywhere, and cheaper on sale.