Do digital camcorders take good still shots?

satchmosatchmo
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
Have to get a wedding gift this fall. Was thinking of a digital camera first then thought that a camcorder would also come in handy for when they have kids.

I'm familiar with still 3 and 4 MP cameras and the good results they produce. However, do camcorders come close to that quality when taking stills?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    agent302agent302 Posts: 974member
    From all that I've seen, the best stills from video cameras are only 1.3 megapixels, which, while not horrible, will not be close to the quality of a 3 or 4 megapixel camera.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    wjmoorewjmoore Posts: 210member
    Image quality is fine, just small. My experience is camcorders do video well and stills as a bonus, digital camera do stills well and video as a bonus. You need to choose which one you want the most.
  • Reply 3 of 6
    ast3r3xast3r3x Posts: 5,012member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by WJMoore

    Image quality is fine, just small. My experience is camcorders do video well and stills as a bonus, digital camera do stills well and video as a bonus. You need to choose which one you want the most.



    You aren't getting bigger then 4x5 with 1MP or so...you would more likely be able to get a decent 3x5 or wallet (2.5x3.5)
  • Reply 4 of 6
    pontonponton Posts: 43member
    I have both a 5 MP Sony digital camera and Sony Camcorder with 1 MP still image capability. I just use the camcorder stills for emergency only. Sony does have a 2 MP still function in their MV camcorder, but stay away from MV, as it is almost impossible to edit.
  • Reply 5 of 6
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    A real 1.3 mp still camera can take acceptable 4x6s, but nothing more.



    A camcorder will have video quality optics and an inferior quality CCD...



    Sony does have a MiniDV camcorder with a 2+ megapixel image sensor: The TRV-80. Up to me, I'd get a Canon still and Sony video camera...
  • Reply 6 of 6
    bill mbill m Posts: 324member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Eugene

    A real 1.3 mp still camera can take acceptable 4x6s, but nothing more.



    A camcorder will have video quality optics and an inferior quality CCD...



    Sony does have a MiniDV camcorder with a 2+ megapixel image sensor: The TRV-80. Up to me, I'd get a Canon still and Sony video camera...



    I agree with Eugene here. Only wish to add that nothing beats video for saving kids' first precious moments. Also, Canon offers some pretty good optics on their compact ZR series DV cameras, like the ZR70, with up to 22x optical zoom. And you can't go wrong with any of their still cameras; in fact, I recently got myself a new Canon G5, which totally rocks! So, I would go with Canon for both still and video.
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