Camera suggestions? Thread

So i have been snooping around interwebz looking for a fairly decent camera, i wanted to buy one for quite some time and also i have this weird urge to try out After Effects and VFX in general, and simply because the one that we have is an utter junk. I have read a lot of reviews, still i cant decide yet, so i would like to hear your ideas/suggestions on what camera should i get,as i am a bit overwhelmed with choice ,It should have a fairly nice quality video and of course pictures of good quality..
The budget isnt too big, but i think its enough : 300 $ top (European prices.)
Any help appreciated and Thanks in advance!

Edited by: Flash112

I think you'll struggle to get a decent camera for $300 - last time I needed a video camera, I rented one at that price for a few days. I picked up a HS20EXR recently for about $475, which was reasonable and did what I needed it to do, but I quickly found myself at issue with it in lower light conditions, issues with barrel distortion and a general lack of control over my shooting settings.

ambershee wrote: I think you'll struggle to get a decent camera for $300 - last time I needed a video camera, I rented one at that price for a few days. I picked up a HS20EXR recently for about $475, which was reasonable and did what I needed it to do, but I quickly found myself at issue with it in lower light conditions, issues with barrel distortion and a general lack of control over my shooting settings.

heh, you are most likely right.. i was aiming more at a good compact camera, since i dont have enough money to get an awesome fairly professional one..

The one I picked up was a compact

yeah, then what i meant was something along these lines when i meant compact
Itechnobuzz.com

Not sure what you're using it for but the cheap ones (like the Flip cameras) don't give you all the settings the higher ones have and you tend to get a lot of motion blur.

However, if you're just wanting to make videos, edit them & do simple FX, I'd suggest one of those sub-$100 flip cameras. I have a $1500 HDV camera that I like and I've used a Flip camera. The $1.5k one has more features and turns out nicer but the flip one is just fine for recording movies of the kids, editing, adding some FX & then putting on youtube.