Well since UPS stole my Canon TX-1 and the TX1 is pretty much out of stock everywhere at the price I bought it for, I am re-evaluating my HD Camcorder purchase.
I have been playing around with editing with Sony Vegas, and am quite pleased. So now I am bringing editing into the fray, so my Camcorder choice has been steering towards a more serious product. I plan on shooting footage of my baby daughter as she grows up, and various other family activities, primarily. Since trips to the beach will be a regular occurance, build quality is an issue for me as well, although I am quite careful with my stuff.
Here are a few contenders I've been looking into:
1. Canon HV20
2. Canon HV10
3. Sony HDR-HC7
4. Sony HDR-SR1
5. Panasonic HDC-SD1
Canon HV20.
I have been interested in the Canon HV20, since it has better low light performance and an interesting 24p mode. I missed out on quite a few sales, so it's at $1000+ again. It hit as low as $800 before. I could try to wait around, but who knows how long it will go on sale, let alone actually be in stock.
Canon HV10.
Smaller form factor that interests me, it is a sort of compromise for the small Canon T1 that was stolen from me. But at the expense of being able to use an external microphone of any kind. Also no way to monitor sound since there is no headphone jack (yes, blasphemy in a headphone forum). But I'm pretty sure 90% of footage I end up editing will be more montage like with music instead of sound. There is no 24p mode and low light performance is not as good as the HV20. But the HV10 feels much more sturdy than the craptastic HV20. The HV20 feels to cheap and plasticky in comparison, really feels fragile. Also, the HV10 is about $300 cheaper than the HV20 right now. Is the HV20 really worth the nearly 50% price premium?
Sony HDR-HC7.
Similar in size and specs as the HV20. Much better build quality. Not too crazy about the fingerprint magnet touchscreen interface. The HC7 lacks the neat 24p mode, and is apparently not quite as good at low light as the HV20, but the HC7 handles better than the HV20. (well, at least in my hands). Otherwise, like the HV20, it's rather large, but not overly so. Not pocketable, but wouldn't take up too much room in a bag.
Sony HDR-SR1.
I really like the "idea" of this one from the get go. I really dislike tapes. Hell, I hate dealing with optical discs. My whole music collection is ripped into hard drive storage as FLAC files. So, the "idea" of having footage captured to a HDD and dragging and dropping files really appeals to me. Unfortunately in practice, it is not so great. Unlike lossless audio compression, AVCHD has a significant loss in quality compared to HDV. And the time savings from extracting files from the HDD compared to capturing video from HDV tape is lost in the extra processing time from a NLE program dealing with the AVCHD codec. And interesting feature, is that the SR1 uses the same battery type as my ancient Sony Digital 8 Handicam. But the SR1 is a beast. It is huge compared to the other contenders. Although, not nearly the gigantor my ancient Digital 8 is.
Panasonic HDC-SD1.
This product really interested me from day one. I was enthralled with the idea of total solid state storage. Using SD and SDHC cards for storage. Very nice ergonomics. I really liked the feel of it when I played around with it at CES. It has so many manual controls, and even has a microphone jack. but no headphone jack? The built in 5.1 "zooming" microphone is quite interesting. But unfortunately it seems low light is problematic for this one as well. And there's the AVCHD codec to deal with. Also, you would think having totally solid state storage would save battery life. Not so, it seems the LCD is the battery sucker, and the SD1 is unable to have an extended battery unlike all the other contenders. I do have two 150x Speed 4GB SD cards already, so I wouldn't need to buy any extra cards yet.
So there it is. Anyone else have experience here and other thoughts? Want to make more jabs at how much UPS sucks? (nah, save it for the other thread)
-Ed
I have been playing around with editing with Sony Vegas, and am quite pleased. So now I am bringing editing into the fray, so my Camcorder choice has been steering towards a more serious product. I plan on shooting footage of my baby daughter as she grows up, and various other family activities, primarily. Since trips to the beach will be a regular occurance, build quality is an issue for me as well, although I am quite careful with my stuff.
Here are a few contenders I've been looking into:
1. Canon HV20
2. Canon HV10
3. Sony HDR-HC7
4. Sony HDR-SR1
5. Panasonic HDC-SD1
Canon HV20.
I have been interested in the Canon HV20, since it has better low light performance and an interesting 24p mode. I missed out on quite a few sales, so it's at $1000+ again. It hit as low as $800 before. I could try to wait around, but who knows how long it will go on sale, let alone actually be in stock.
Canon HV10.
Smaller form factor that interests me, it is a sort of compromise for the small Canon T1 that was stolen from me. But at the expense of being able to use an external microphone of any kind. Also no way to monitor sound since there is no headphone jack (yes, blasphemy in a headphone forum). But I'm pretty sure 90% of footage I end up editing will be more montage like with music instead of sound. There is no 24p mode and low light performance is not as good as the HV20. But the HV10 feels much more sturdy than the craptastic HV20. The HV20 feels to cheap and plasticky in comparison, really feels fragile. Also, the HV10 is about $300 cheaper than the HV20 right now. Is the HV20 really worth the nearly 50% price premium?
Sony HDR-HC7.
Similar in size and specs as the HV20. Much better build quality. Not too crazy about the fingerprint magnet touchscreen interface. The HC7 lacks the neat 24p mode, and is apparently not quite as good at low light as the HV20, but the HC7 handles better than the HV20. (well, at least in my hands). Otherwise, like the HV20, it's rather large, but not overly so. Not pocketable, but wouldn't take up too much room in a bag.
Sony HDR-SR1.
I really like the "idea" of this one from the get go. I really dislike tapes. Hell, I hate dealing with optical discs. My whole music collection is ripped into hard drive storage as FLAC files. So, the "idea" of having footage captured to a HDD and dragging and dropping files really appeals to me. Unfortunately in practice, it is not so great. Unlike lossless audio compression, AVCHD has a significant loss in quality compared to HDV. And the time savings from extracting files from the HDD compared to capturing video from HDV tape is lost in the extra processing time from a NLE program dealing with the AVCHD codec. And interesting feature, is that the SR1 uses the same battery type as my ancient Sony Digital 8 Handicam. But the SR1 is a beast. It is huge compared to the other contenders. Although, not nearly the gigantor my ancient Digital 8 is.
Panasonic HDC-SD1.
This product really interested me from day one. I was enthralled with the idea of total solid state storage. Using SD and SDHC cards for storage. Very nice ergonomics. I really liked the feel of it when I played around with it at CES. It has so many manual controls, and even has a microphone jack. but no headphone jack? The built in 5.1 "zooming" microphone is quite interesting. But unfortunately it seems low light is problematic for this one as well. And there's the AVCHD codec to deal with. Also, you would think having totally solid state storage would save battery life. Not so, it seems the LCD is the battery sucker, and the SD1 is unable to have an extended battery unlike all the other contenders. I do have two 150x Speed 4GB SD cards already, so I wouldn't need to buy any extra cards yet.
So there it is. Anyone else have experience here and other thoughts? Want to make more jabs at how much UPS sucks? (nah, save it for the other thread)
-Ed
