what camcorder to buy?

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Posted by Darren Chan on May 29, 2000 at 00:09:06:

I'm completely new at this and have been doing a little research on and off for the past couple of days.

I'm looking to buy a camcorder, either 8mm, or digital video format. Any suggestions on which I should choose over the other? The 8mm and hi8 formats have a max recording time of 2 hrs am I correct? What is the max of the digital video format? I already have a capture card, so if I really need to get the video on to my computer, I could always do it through the camcorder outputs. Should I consider another format?

I'm not looking to take still pictures with the camcorder, so I don't really care for that option.

I heard that Consumer Reports rated a Hitachi model as the best. Anyone know which model they rated? Over at Deja.com, the JVC's and Sony's are stacked at the top of the ratings, almost all of them digital. I'm trying to find more ratings on non-digital camcorders. Is the JVC GR-DVF31 worth the money?