Express Action Sports

I will be taking it snowboarding and skiing mostly. But need top notch quality. Price range: Below $1000. Thanks

For new, your request has mutually exclusive terms. There is no Professional video (or still) camera anywhere near $1000. You can get by with $2500 +/- Pro-sumer cameras running uncompressed MiniDv.

The consumer, camcorders under $1500 all use the same H264 highly compressed so-called "High-Def" recording format. The term "high-def" is pure marketing. Canon, JVC, Sony…all use the same format, pick one you like (for action, look for the biggest (diameter) lens you can get, Optical Image stabilization, etc)

The data rate says it all: MiniDv= 13 gigs/hour for 720X480 while the highest resolution H264 is 11gigs/hour to record almost twice the pixel information.

True High-Def rings in around $6000. Cameras for production run about the price of a small house.

I have paid $1500 for a used Canon GL-2 and would gladly do so again before I spent $1000 on a H264 camcorder. Similar cameras can easily be found for under $800. I found a like-new Canon XL-2 for less than $1000 several months ago.

Want a $1000 consumer camera, pick a toy any toy. Want video you might be able to sell, hit the auctions/want ads and find the best MiniDv you can get your hands on. JVC, Sony, and my favorite…Canon, all make fine cameras.