What camcorder should I use to film catching fish on the ocean?

Hi,





I want to film the catching of fish from a boat on the ocean. I am hoping to make an instructional DVD and have no idea what camcorder to buy. Can anyone please suggest what camcorders I should start looking at?





It would be wonderful if I didn't have to pay over $700.





Thanks in advance.|||Translated: You want pro-grade video quality at a mid-range consumer-grade price. Uh... we ALL do. But there's a reason why the pros use what they use - the quality is much better. They don't want to spend more than they have to, either.





You can try a Canon HV30 or HDR-HC9. Both are miniDV tape based camcorders so will provide best available quality. But as consumer cams, they have small lenses and imaging chips, so don't expect any miracles. They both can capture 1080i High Definition, and 4:3 or 16:9 Standard def. You may also need to consider some sort of stabilizing structure - tripod or camera crane - maybe a SpiderBrace. And an external mic or two.





Depending on the boat, it is possible that the motor will create too much vibration and the noise of the motor may as well, so don't even consider a hard drive based camcorder. Maybe one of the Canon flash memory camcorders... but the file formats they store are very compressed and video compression = discarded data = reduced video quality... DV (and HDV) format written to miniDV tape does not compress as much as the HDD or flash rigs, hence the better video quality.





If you are expecting to make $ off the "instructional DVD", I would not go with anything less than a Canon GL2 or Sony VX2200 (standard definition only) - and would suggest a Sony HDR-FX1 or Canon XHA1.