HD Camcorder from Argos, and wedding video.

[dares_uk]

Hi
I bought a new HD camcorder from argos last week.
we bought it now for one reason, to record our wedding!
Upon looking at the footage I was extremely disappointed with the quality.
and it is deffinatly not HD, and not even good / smooth etc...
i spoke to the manufacture, they said they would exchange it,
but advised me to go back to the retailer first.
took it back to argos, and the exchanged it for me.
I am now going to try the new camera, but i dont think its faulty, just think
its poor quality / not up to the job really.

If we are not happy with the replacement, i will be taking it back for a refund.
But would i be entitled to damages??
because we can exactly go back and re record our wedding footage.

thanks

 

[ALewis]

Well you can certainly return it for a refund again, however how could you possibly claim for damages? Can you quantify an amount that would make it better? Sadly not.

What camera is it? I'm a photographer on the side, so I can advise you seperately on that.
Adam

 

[dares_uk]

camera was a toshiba camileo x400.

 

[dares_uk]

well after testing the replacement today seem its not faulty, just poor quality.
outdoor / light picture is better but still not HD. and indoors picture quality i shocking and all snowy / grainy.
will be taking it back and writing a letter to toshiba and argos.

 

[ALewis]

You will find it better outdoors due to the abundance of natural light.
That camcorder has an aperture of 3.5-4, which is not very good if truth be told. And you want to be aiming at a camera with an aperture of 1.8 , which means it would let in 8 times the amount of light than a 3.5.
You'll find that the sensor in that camcorder is small too, and is only a 5 megapixel sensor. Meaning it doesn't record much data on the sensor, and with it being so small. It needs lots more light than a larger sensor.

You'll be getting grainy images indoors where there is low light due to the ISO automatically rising giving the unacceptable fuzzy bits.
Manual settings are always better, but sometimes if you have a not so great camera to begin with, there's not much you can do really.

The camcorder is infact HD, as HD simply means you can obtain a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. High definition does not mean high quality. It simply means that it can be played back at that size.

When buying a camera or camcorder, try to get a 35mm sensor, and a lens with a wide aperture . The aperture is stated on the front of the camera as "F2" or in your case "F3.5 - 4" which means its F3.5 at no zoom, and F4 at furthest zoom. The lower the number, the more light allowed into your lens.

Hope this helps