Topic: I need a camcorder, help me pick (PURCHASED), need more help!!!

[leehookem]

Got a baby on the way and my girl said we NEED a camcorder. I am in total agreement since I will get full use of this with the baby AND recording concert footage to go along with my audio. Here is the one I have my eye on:

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665291500

HD is a must as is a hard drive. Any other suggestions?

[pjdavep]

Got a baby on the way and my girl said we NEED a camcorder. I am in total agreement since I will get full use of this with the baby AND recording concert footage to go along with my audio. Here is the one I have my eye on:

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665291500

HD is a must as is a hard drive. Any other suggestions?

Congrats on the new little one!  My wife and I are in the same boat and we recently upgraded our standard def camcorder to the Canon HF10 -
http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=177&modelid=16186#ModelDetailAct

We're very happy with it and I love the flash memory recording.   Although the capacity is nowhere near the 60GB in the Sony you linked, the two hour built in record time is more than sufficient and I figured that memory is getting cheaper and cheaper.  I have a couple 8GB cards from taping with my Edirol R-09, so if we go on vacation, I can bring those along for extra storage.  16GB cards can be had for around $25.  The best thing about flash vs hard drive is no moving parts in the flash and better power consumption.  Just something to think about...

Later,
  pjdavep

[stantheman1976]

Some will disagree with me on this but my advice is if you are filming important memories like your child growing up stick with tape.  Hard drives and recordable optical discs can and will go bad and you will be more prone to lose important footage.  The idea of redundant backups can be argued all day long but the fact that tapes have been around for a long time and proven themselves for long term storage makes the case for me.  I will stake any good reputation I have on my statement that if you shoot with a hard drive or DVD based camcorder today you will probably not have that footage in 10 years.  If you must have high def go with a Canon HV20/30.  They're good, small cameras that shoot HD footage to tape and are affordable on most budgets.

That's my $.02

[stevetoney]

^ It's all a function of how well you work with and back-up data.  Like it or not, I think the age of the magnetic tape is pretty close to becoming all but over.  You're probably right, the tape will still be around in ten years, but the problem is that there won't be anything to play it with.  As an example, if you haven't converted your DAT masters by now (many of which were made far less than 10 years ago) you're in trouble of missing the boat.  As time goes on, I would venture to say that we all will have more and more important data that we need to make sure that we secure...wehther it's our master audio or video, photos, medical records, financial records, etc.  I just think that home systems are gonna move more and more to weekly and daily backup systems just like currently exist on our work systems.  I'm in the process of putting together a rudimentary system where I manually backup right now, in fact.

[coloartist]

I would get the Canon HV30 http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/539289-REG/Canon_2680B001_VIXIA_HV30_HDV_Camcorder.html

I have a xha1 which is basically the prosumer version of the HV30. I have seen great images from these cameras.

True that DV won't be around forever, but you end up putting it on a hard drive anyway. Then you have a tape and a data copy. My Panasonic hvx200 wrote everything to a harddrive or P2 card, so I had to always write everything to two hard drives fearing one would crash. I love having a tape backup.

[phanophish]

I just went through the same thing.  I wound up with a Canon HF-100.  For me the hard part of the decision wasn't the media format, as I pretty much believe it is not the most important decision.  I need to back up and archive the data regardless and the initial capture media is not really relevant to that discussion.  I like the idea of simply swapping out the SDHC card for more storage capacity, not being reliant on the capture device for playback or download and I really like the solid state nature of the media.  I can download and play back images without my Camcorder and I can capture video without having to clear off the only media (internal Hard drive)  I can capture to.  SDHC media is very cheap these days and a spinning hard drive is something mechanical that can & does fail.

For me the bigger decision was in the capture codec.  There are some real decisions with regard to workflow, quality and long term support when deciding between the AVCHD and MiniDV formats.  Ultimately I went with AVCHD since I had to upgrade my editing solution to support HD so making the jump to AVCHD seemed logical.

[sparkey]

but the fact that tapes have been around for a long time and proven themselves for long term storage makes the case for me.

I just moved and have been playing DAT tapes that are 10+ years old.  I repack them before I play them and they're just fine.  I wouldn't keep them in places where the environment gets extreme (hot attics, wet basements, etc), but I'd say they're ok for a bit.  Anything really important should also be backed up on DVD-R, IMO.

Josh

[rastasean]

I would never record video directly to hard drives. People here get worried with the JB3s, irivers, etc.
I don't see how a hard drive camcorder is a step FORWARD.

[sparkey]

Ipods seem to do okay...are those solid state?

I would never record video directly to hard drives. People here get worried with the JB3s, irivers, etc.
I don't see how a hard drive camcorder is a step FORWARD.

[leehookem]

thanks for getting the conversation going fellas.  I am a complete noob when it comes to video.  It makes since not to have a hard drive on a camera since I don't care to have one for my audio recorder.  For the most part, I think I have all but rules out Sony.  I don't really care to have to buy another form of media.  I already have 24 gigs of CF and 16 gigs of SDHC.

[rsimms3]

I have a Sanyo HD1000 and now there is the Sanyo HD1010 which is the 1080p version, both record to h.264 that can be dealt with in Yamb to a point.  It is a slightly oddball format outside of the MPEG2 format HD cameras.  It uses SDHC cards and is pretty easy to use I think.  Great thing is the pistol grip which sets is apart from other video cameras which might not be allowed in a show.  I once heard someone had issues with a hard drive based video camera shutting down to protect the hard drive due to vibrations from a very loud show.  I personally would go HD on DV film as it seems to be the easiest format to work with in terms of cutting, etc. for creating DVDs.   

[stantheman1976]

but the fact that tapes have been around for a long time and proven themselves for long term storage makes the case for me.

I just moved and have been playing DAT tapes that are 10+ years old.  I repack them before I play them and they're just fine.  I wouldn't keep them in places where the environment gets extreme (hot attics, wet basements, etc), but I'd say they're ok for a bit.  Anything really important should also be backed up on DVD-R, IMO.

Josh

I have a son who will be 3 in April and another boy due in late February.  I want to be able to watch my kids' first birthdays when they are 10.  I will never use a non tape camera.  I don't mind using iRivers and my Sony D50 for audio because I do back that up and nothing I record besides my home movies is critical to me.  Other stuff can get lost and I won't cry but if I were to lose footage of my son just after birth because a hard drive failed I'd be devastated.  Concerts are great to record and remember but nothing is ever as precious as those memories.

[pjdavep]

I think that within the next year, 8GB flash cards (1 hr of HD video) will be down to around 4 bucks.  That's almost the same price as a high quality miniDV tape.  With prices like that you could archive either the raw footage or edited footage on the flash card and just throw it in your safe (or safety deposit box) for archiving.  They are smaller and the data is safer than it is with magnetic tape, right?   It may be slightly cost prohibitive for a couple months, but that'll change.

One thing I love about the new flash camera I have is that the startup time, from powering up the camera to being able to record, is about 3 seconds.  The miniDV cam we used to have took about 15 seconds to be ready and we've missed countless cute things that our daughter was doing.

Later,
   pjdavep

[Liquid Drum]

I think that within the next year, 8GB flash cards (1 hr of HD video) will be down to around 4 bucks.  That's almost the same price as a high quality miniDV tape.  With prices like that you could archive either the raw footage or edited footage on the flash card and just throw it in your safe (or safety deposit box) for archiving.  They are smaller and the data is safer than it is with magnetic tape, right?   It may be slightly cost prohibitive for a couple months, but that'll change.

One thing I love about the new flash camera I have is that the startup time, from powering up the camera to being able to record, is about 3 seconds.  The miniDV cam we used to have took about 15 seconds to be ready and we've missed countless cute things that our daughter was doing.

Later,
   pjdavep

A possibility yes, but I always thought those SD/HDD cams record to compressed mpeg...?? Am I wrong?

[maidencolorado]

...I once heard someone had issues with a hard drive based video camera shutting down to protect the hard drive due to vibrations from a very loud show....   

I can personally relate to that, sucked in a BIG way too as I was filming a show on a tour of the US that was 5 shows long and was the first time the band had ever been to the states.  I switched to SDHC with the same cammie in a similar situation (as far as volume of the show) without a problem.

I like the lack of having to deal with a tape switch om the HDD cammies, but have now gone back to MiniDV.