HD Camcorders

[Traveler]

Anyone here have one? Recommendations?

[Spider]

I would go with the most expensive one the shelf , if it doesnt work as good as the others , it gives you a good reason to rant

[OrangeShadow]

all i know is my buddy just got a 2200 dollar sony video camera for his 21st bday

he has a snowboarding/skateboarding website he has videos on.

[RhymesayersDU]

The more and more I read about electronics, most of these websites point to Consumer Reports for advice.

They're a nonprofit organization with no interest, and for their web access it's like 20 bucks. I'd recommend shelling that out before making a major mistake.

[ScottXray]

Originally Posted by Traveler

Anyone here have one? Recommendations?

I have a Canon HV20...The HD is great , but you better have a HIGH powered computer with a blu ray burner if you want to make High def disks to archive...and they aint cheap.

On the other hand you can down res to DVD quality and hardly tell the difference between a factory quality DVD image and your recordings. The camera can do it in camera ..but you lose a little more quality that way over external down res.

For simplicitys sake the Hard drive camcorders store more picture info. But you still have to get it into a PC to edit and that format needs an even MORE powerful computer, since it has a diiferent compression technique used. Also the video is stored compressed on the drive...so you can't do any frame accurate editing. thats the reason I went HDV over the hard drive.

The Canon has a great picture, and good low light useability (I recorded 4th of July fireworks and they came out great...and in color (not night vision green)). Panning too fast can cause a wobbling motion though.

The good news is the Canon uses standard mini DV tapes...and hold an hour of High def...


there are new cameras coming out weekly , it seems now.

[Traveler]

Originally Posted by ScottXray

I have a Canon HV20...The HD is great , but you better have a HIGH powered computer with a blu ray burner if you want to make High def disks to archive...and they aint cheap.

On the other hand you can down res to DVD quality and hardly tell the difference between a factory quality DVD image and your recordings. The camera can do it in camera ..but you lose a little more quality that way over external down res.

For simplicitys sake the Hard drive camcorders store more picture info. But you still have to get it into a PC to edit and that format needs an even MORE powerful computer, since it has a diiferent compression technique used. Also the video is stored compressed on the drive...so you can't do any frame accurate editing. thats the reason I went HDV over the hard drive.

The Canon has a great picture, and good low light useability (I recorded 4th of July fireworks and they came out great...and in color (not night vision green)). Panning too fast can cause a wobbling motion though.

The good news is the Canon uses standard mini DV tapes...and hold an hour of High def...


there are new cameras coming out weekly , it seems now.

Thanks Scott!

I was looking at the JVC GZHD7US but discovered it has issues similar to what you described above. I'll check into the Canon you mentioned.

[Chris]

How much does a blu-ray burner cost these days and how much will it cost in 18 months?