high def camcorders

danger boy

I'm looking for an HD camcorder in the upcoming months. I see mainly three types of HD cameras out there.

1. hard drive
2. flash/removable media
3. DVD

my problem is each one has pluses and minuses with each format.

the ones with large hard drives seem to be the most expensive. that's ok. my problem with a hard drive bases camera is what happens when the camcorder gets dropped or knocked around pretty hard? it's going to toast the hard drive, right? well it could.

Then to removable media based camcorders. the media cards can get expensive. Say i'm on I don't know a 10 day vacation to Mexico and I shoot a lot of HD video.. I'm thinking i'm going to go through quite a few media cards. And the cards I think top out at something like 32 gigs each. So if I wanted to say have 126 gigs of recordable space.. that would be 4 x 32 gig cards = $$ 32 gig card runs $80 each

Finally DVD based camcorders.. bigger and bulkier. media is cheap, but bigger and bulkier. usually the least expensive of the three types of cameras.

Anyway.. if you have an HD camcorder. which brand did you go with and what type of media does it record onto>>?

dkg999

I was waiting to see if the Blu-Ray capable camcorders took off! It would be nice to have the ability to record to the higher capacity BR discs. I think that other than that the removable media ones are the way to go, as long as you have a laptop with a good sized hard drive available, or the ability to find a fast internet connection to upload the video to your server or online storage site.

I'm in the market for a camcorder also, so curious to see the more informed responses!

danger boy

i think you are right, the removable media ones would make things easier. i could just removed the card from the camera and insert it in the laptop and probably be able to edit it pretty fast that way.

otherwise if it was all on a hard drive built into the camera.. it would take some time to transfer it to a laptop. not sure how fast that would go via USB cable.

drselect

I have a sanyo xacti vpc-FH1 with flash memory. I got 2 16g sticks and 1 8g stick when I bought it about year ago. When we are on vacation we find it convenient to transfer the video from the stick to your laptop (have yet to run out of memory during a day out). We also like the fact that it takes decent good still shots so we don't need to lug a camera and a camcorder. I found this web site to be very useful when trying to find a camcorder http://www.camcorderinfo.com/ The camcorder review tab on the left sends you to a summary page.

Sherardp

I bought a Kodak Zi8 handheld cam. It sounds like your looking for something a tad more serious. With all the glowing reviews I would suggest you take a look at the Canon HV40.

dudeinaroom

I've got a JVC with a 60 gig HDD and love it. It also has a slot for sd cards. I Got it last year and still have not filled the hard drive. It is only a 720p though.

danger boy

the HD cams i've been compairing are Sony, Samsung and Canon. Of course will consider other brands.. looking to keep it around $1,000 or much less if possible. really like the ones that do well at night.. with the 1/2" CMOS or EMOS chip in them.

jycegrcia

I have bought Canon Vixia HF S11. It is an excellent flash-based prosumer HD camcorder and it has the advantage of an excellent image stabilizer but the place where it lacks is eye-level viewfinder. It is available between the range of $1000.00 to $1299.99.