What to consider when buying a video camera?

[Oakie]

I've been tasked with buying a video camera for work. Trouble is that I've not used one for about 12 years so am hopelessly out of date with the technology.

There will be many users a lot won't be that tech savvy so I just want the equivalent of a 'point and shoot' camera. Something nice and basic with not too many settings for people to play with and something that is easy to recover your captured video from.

Suggestions as to makes/models and what features are important ... all the way from battery type to memory type and output options. Cheers.

[The Everlasting]

Are you wanting it mainly for taking pictures or actually recording video?

I just a few days ago bought me a relatively inexpensive 12.2 Megapixel camera for very little money,it also takes 720p HD video.

[Oakie]

Video only. Don't want to confuse them!

[steve_t]

Yeah, depends on what you're recording. Defo get one that takes solid state media eg SD card. Some CMOS cameras have "rolling shutter" issues so if you're moving quickly, you may want to consider a CCD sensor. Other features like zoom range and low light quality and speed of autofocus are things you'll need to decide for yourself and try out in store

[The Everlasting]

You could take a look on here and compare some:

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/

[Oakie]

Thanks for the link. I've just got off www.pricespy.co.nz comparing 239 (filtered down to about 30).

[imdying]

something that is easy to recover your captured video from

You'll produce more video than you know what to do with, so you'll need to be able to chop it into 'movies'. Make sure it doesn't record in some retarded format that's difficult to work with. Decide what software you're going to use, install it on a laptop, and don't hand over the money till you've been able to shoot 20 seconds of footage in store, up it to the laptop, open it your editor, and pop a video out the other side. Sounds like a lot of dicking about, but you don't want to get stuck with something that is a PITA to use.