Budget (sub $500) video camera for travel.

AamirA · April 28

Hello! The ltt forum has never failed to help me not waste my money, so I'm trusting your expertise once again.

I am intending on buying a camera for the purpose of recording my family, whether that is just capturing life's moments or documenting a vacation. I would like the camera to be small and portable with good-quality video. Furthermore, I don't like the feeling of recording with my phone and think a dedicated camera to talk to, which I can dump the video and edit later, is a nicer process.

Here is what I found already with my research.

It seems a Sony zv-1 is a good choice and looks like exactly what I'm looking for, but is above my budget. Even used doesn't seem to help me; I much prefer the price to be in the $400 dollar range. The action 5 pro (and insta 360 ace pro 2) is enticing and cheap, but I feel like it is too small (maybe that is a weird opinion). Like I want to record my family, and an action camera form factor seems too small to talk to and to hold. Additionally, I don't think the image quality on action cameras is that good, especially indoors, I hear. I'm pretty sure my phone camera is better and feels like a waste. It seems the only option that really seems to hit all my boxes is the Sony zv-1f. I think I like this camera, but please let me know if it is not a good value, and I am overlooking something.

Thank you for reading!

dizmo · April 28

I can't help but think you'd be best off just getting the newest iPhone you can.

Blue4130 · April 28

20 hours ago, AamirA said:

Additionally, I don't think the image quality on action cameras is that good, especially indoors, I hear. I'm pretty sure my phone camera is better and feels like a waste.

I dunno, I have an insta360 x3 that blows the doors off my xiaomi 12 for indoors. BUT the insta is way too wide of a view even in the narrowest setting.

I'd look for something like a used sony rx100 m3 or the likes.

Vilacom · April 29

@dizmo is 100% correct, for your price range the best bang for the buck is going to be a good smartphone. Is there a reason that isn’t a consideration and you’re looking for something else?

There just isn’t much that is going to top the quality and convenience of a smartphone for under $400. Even buying that Sony ZV-1 new isn’t going to meaningfully change the quality of the video you get from the system, almost everything that makes video look significantly better is controlling the lighting or using something to shoot raw so you can grade it in post, if you’re not doing that it’s all going to look somewhat similar especially candid/on the spot shots of your family.

Upgrading your phone is going to give you the best results overall, if you’re worried about recording space then looking for an option that accepts micro SD should be on your priority list.

AamirA · April 29

I'm not especially interested in better image quality. I just don't want it to look horrible My overall reason for wanting a camera is it I feel it changes how people act compared to a phone. It feels less intrusive and more natural. Also having a separate device will get me to take more, longer videos. Does all that make sense? I just want to make sure I'm spending my money on the right camera which is the point of this post

Vilacom · May 1

On 4/29/2025 at 9:10 PM, AamirA said:

I'm not especially interested in better image quality. I just don't want it to look horrible My overall reason for wanting a camera is it I feel it changes how people act compared to a phone. It feels less intrusive and more natural. Also having a separate device will get me to take more, longer videos. Does all that make sense? I just want to make sure I'm spending my money on the right camera which is the point of this post

Used is the way to go then

here are some completed listings for the Canon XA-10
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=Canon+XA10&_sacat=0&_from=R40&rt=nc&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1

It looks like its in your price range, you can remove the top adapter for XLR microphones so it’ll just be a handheld camera, fantastic quality 1080p, everything you could want to do will be pretty fantastic in a more “standard” size handheld camcorder form factor. I’ve used one for nearly 10 years and the quality still is fabulous.

If you’re really set on something new the two options I’d consider(but have literally zero experience with so please understand this is not a recommendation only looking at price and listed specs for what you’re interested in) would be the following

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1838270-REG/minolta_mn4kpro_kit_mn4kpro_ultra_hd_4k60.html/reviews

Only has one review but the price is low and it appears to be the form factor you’re interested in

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1116341-REG/zoom_zq8_q8_handy_video_recorder.html/reviews

This one is probably the one I would pick based on having more reviews and seems to be an overall decent package with quite a bit of praise being heaped on it for the audio, something you’d expect from a Zoom product.

Any of those will likely serve you well, personally I’d go for the used XA-10 because its a much more complete package of a camcorder(Over $2000 when it was first released, a real professional tool with everything you’d expect from that) compared to the budget choices that make big compromises because of how limited the market is for them, things like zoom, accessories, and general image quality.

The other big advantage to the XA10 is it has two memory card slots and that enables simultaneous recording. So that family event, game, kids rehearsal, etc will have a built in backup. Flash memory is very reliable but over a long enough period of time if you use it a lot it WILL fail eventually, it’s something all professional photographers and videographers learn eventually and believe me its not something you ever want to experience.