Best buy Digital Camera Online

I had been thinking about buying an HD camcorder for a few weeks, in anticipation of my daughter's 1st dance recital. As the event loomed closer, and closer, I determined that buying something online wasn't going to be feasiable insomuch of delivery time, so sent an email to my brother in-law, who works at a camera store. I asked him about HD camcorders and whether they sold them, and whether there was anything worth while to buy under $200. His answer was "HA..nope!" He then explained that there wasn't anything worth while to buy under $600.

After reading that, I went on the web, and found this product. Not only did it have the technical specifications I was looking for 1080p@30fps and 720p@60fps, but it was also under $200. Even better, overnight shipping was only $20!! The reviews had me, the price was right, and it would be delivered ontime.

The product, simply works awesome. I couldn't be happier. Although I am sure there are better products out there, I simply do not need anything more. It records in HD, it is simple to use, it charges quickly, hooks up to my TV with no trouble, and uploads onto YouTube with ease. As a father looking to capture the events in his family's life, this is the best bang-for-buck around.

Anyone intrested in watching the videos I recorded, go to YouTube and search "2009 YMCA Dance Recital" you should get a least 5 videos by NFJ1978; those are the ones I recorded with this camera. Just remember to click on the "HD" button below the viewing screen when you get to YouTube, as they default you to a non-HD version....

It takes amazing footage in good light, and is OK in low light.
See also http://www.vimeo.com/2807027 Please see plenty of test footage and video reviews of this camcorder on vimeo.com


I also own the GVS' predecessor, the Aiptek Action HD, and the GVS is a reasonable upgrade. Both are great, but the image stabilization, much better LCD screen, and modest optical zoom enhancement are worth the extra $$$. On the other hand the GVS does NOT have an LED video light, which was helpful, though weak. (thank God Amazon has a good deal on Sima SL-20LX)

This camcorder works perfectly for me. The 60fps is very good. However, if your hands are pretty steady the 30fps isn't bad either. Quick note, the image stabilization only applies to 720p 60fps and wvga 60fps. Low lighting isn't half bad. There is a night mode option that does help a bit but to be honest, I didn't purchase this cam to do low light situations. Still images are really nice once you get the hang of taking them. The 1080p resolution is at 1440x1080. This is actually at 1.33 which is full frame, but the pixels aren't square. If you have K-Lite Codec Pack, you should have something called XVid MP4 which can export this as a widescreen avi file. You'll have to play around with the settings on it to get it just right though. Didn't have any trouble doing this with AVS Video Editor 4. The other video resolutions shouldn't give you any trouble. And mind you, it has nothing to do with the camcorder itself. Codecs aren't truly specifically designed for 1080p so you have to work around it. Format for vids is .mov The software I got with it was ArcSoft. If nothing else, take advantage of the Digital Theatre that comes with that package. It's awesome for viewing the .MOV files as well as any dvd you own. Plus it lets you take still pictures from whatever video is playing. Make no mistake, the HD on this baby is nice. I would suggest testing it out on an actual HD screen though before you start bashing it. I was hanging with one of my old buddies and he thought it was garbage until we looked at the vids on the computer. An LCD is never a good indicator of how the full video looks. That's not even an lcd's purpose. It's so you can see what you're shooting in the first place. And he claimed to be so HD savvy! Ha!

I seriously would recommend this camcorder for anyone that plans to do a lot of daytime shooting. I'd even recommend it for Youtube vids although honestly if all you're doing is shooting for Youtube ONLY, you could actually go after a flip that records in hd. Plan to become a videography hobbyist like myself? Go after the Aiptek.

One more thing. This camcorder has an external mic jack. This was the deal maker for me to be honest. I plan to be pretty busy this fall recording marching bands ever saturday and an external mic is a godsend for this price range. It works very very well and that's after numerous tests at different volume ranges. Using the internal mic only? It has nice frequency response and is in stereo. It's located on the lcd flap so no internal motor noise is picked up. Hope this helped you guys.