Tag Archives: video camera

Brand new video camera

Posted on by
1

Today I joined my mother for lunch at a cafe, when she said to me:

“Oh, you know how you’re looking at video cameras at the moment? I saw this on sale, thought you might like it”

She pulled out a Myers catalogue where the headline read “Mid Season Sale”. She pointed to the particular advertisement for the video camera, and when I saw it, I gasped. It was the better version of the video camera I was after, and it was on sale for only $999 (in other words, it was currently cheaper than the one I had “settled” for.

“We have to go and look at it straight after lunch!”

Once we arrived in the technology section, I stood and waited for 10mins for a staff member to help me. No one did. A bit frustrated, I told Mum I would come back later. We made our way over to Officeworks so she could buy a new printer cartridge, which coincidentally was right next to Camera House. I left her to go on further to Officeworks while I checked with Camera House as to whether they had the model available, and at what cost.

Put simply, the service at Camera House was fantastic. I had only a few minutes wait for someone to become available who then put me onto someone else (more experienced in video cameras). She was able to take out the camera, put in the battery (so I got a sense of it’s realistic weight) and hand it over to me to play around with it. Unfortunately they had the camera on sale for $1599 (the best price they could do even with price matching against Myers), and advised me that surely Myers was selling it at below wholesale cost. I thanked the girl, and left.

Mum and I tried Myers again, but alas still the same bad service. No one helped me, and again I left. I came home, and after debating the decision with my sister and boyfriend, eventually returned to Myers to buy the camera. My line of thinking was:

  • $999 was a damn good deal
  • With the Tourist Refund Scheme, it would work out to be approx $915 (makes it an even better deal)
  • We’re getting $900 each courtesy of the Kevin Rudd stimulus package, due 18th May at the latest
  • This means we’ll have $900 from the government either before we go overseas, or while we’re actually over there. Our bank balance won’t suffer as a result, and in effect it’s paying for the camera.

All of that combined with the fact that again, it was a damn good deal, cemented it for me. I jumped in the car and headed back to Myers, hoping for third time lucky.

When I arrived I was served almost immediately, much to my relief. I told the employee I wanted to buy the video camera, and we got cracking on the deal. It was disappointing when he told me they didn’t actually have any in stock. There was only one camera out the back, and it was on hold until the end of the day for a woman named Kim. I joked that Kelly was close enough to Kim, but accepted that the store would need to order a camera in for me. Wednesday would “hopefully” be the earliest they could get the camera in (not to worry – I still have 27 days until I leave, so as long as I have it before then I didn’t mind). We finalised the deal, I filled out all the forms for my extended warranty and back order, then returned home.

The technical details are that I went with the JVC Everio GZ-HD40. It shoots in true HD (1920×1080), and with a 120gb hard drive can record up to 50hrs of HD footage. More information on the camera can be found here.

JVC Everio GZ-HD40

JVC Everio GZ-HD40

Alas, at the end of the day I came home $1000 poorer and nothing to show for it. But come the end of this week I should hopefully be in possession of a new gadget, with a review on my blog following shortly after. In the meantime, all I can do is scour the internet for anything related to video cameras, and eagerly awaiting the arrival of the camcorder. Bring it on!

Shopping list for holidays…

Posted on by
1

It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged, and as such there will probably be no one reading this…*grin* We’re travelling overseas next year, the huge family trip to America to celebrate my mother’s 60th birthday. For me, this is particularly exciting because I’ve never been overseas before. And reflecting upon this, a few things became apparent to me:

1 – There is no way in hell our current luggage will suit both Mat and I for a month overseas. It manages to last a 2 days, a week at most if we pack extremely light. So we’ll need to buy some new bags, one for both of us as we expect to pick up a lot of stuff when we’re over there.

2 – I want to document this trip as much as I can. Yes I have a camera, but that won’t be enough. A camera doesn’t record the ridiculous things we say and do which we reflect on for years to come (I quote – “smell that bush”, or Aunty Sue dropping her ice cream, or our giggles when we found “big cock” written on the sand, or Madonna stomping on ET’s head while he was breakdancing). Hence, I’ve decided to purchase a video camera. I want to capture the fun times on film, and the mundane things, and produce a movie which we can watch together as a family. Yes, that means we’ll be having movie nights in 20 years. But no doubt this will come in handy even after the trip, as Mat will want ego videos of his 4wd’ing adventures.

3 – Partly in conjunction with the last point, as well as a desire to be able to communicate with people back at home, I want to buy a smalll compact laptop. It will serve two purposes – the tool used to transfer photos & videos from my video and digital cameras to a store device, and the wireless feature allowing me to email my friends from free internet hotspots (like starbucks).

I have been told I’m planning far too in advance, but how am I going to budget for these additional purchases if I don’t start thinking about it now? I need to research, keep my eyes open, get bargains when I can. Any suggestions anyone has (if you’re still reading this) would be fantastic, otherwise I will probably just keep you posted on any reviews and purchases I make. Cheerio!