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Tired & Confused

C

Coach B

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 25, 2007
4
0
Central California
My first post!!!
I am currently in the market for a new camcorder. I am willing to spend as much as I need to for a good camera, but after all the research I have done I am now more confused than ever. Most of the cameras I am considering are in the $1000-$1800 price range. I want something small enough that you can carry around an amusement park, and easy to use. The less "stuff I must deal with the better. I originally purchased a JVC Everio (sp?), but returned it do to poor video quality. I love the idea of High Def because I have a HD Plasma tv and a home theatre system set up. I am concerned with the new HD type AVCHD because I have read that iMovie does not support it, although I would think they would soon...
DVD sounds ok, but more to have to lug around, same with dv tape.
The new Panasonic sounded interesting with the SD card, but it is AVCHD.
What is the best way to go? Buy the Panasonic (I love the size, look and feel) and just keep buying SD cards until there is a Mac compatible edit software? I use iMovie to make little movies of my kids.
Is there a way to copy AVCHD to my hard drive and save it until an editing software becomes available?

AAAUUUUGGH
 
Any recommendations I'd make would depend on what you plan to do with the video after you've shot it. If you plan to edit, and given your budget, I'd stick with a DV or HDV tape based camcorder. Most consumer camcorders that record to disc or HDD do so in a very heavily compressed format and won't work well for editing.

-DH
 
Cannon Elura's are very nice, compact camcorders that work with Digital Video and produce favorable video quality.


But I second DH's post.. if you plan to edit, go DV or HDV
 
TheAnswer said:
There seem to be two main contenders in your price range. One is the Canon HV20 (review thread here, another thread here) and the other is the Sony HC7 (thread here)....also check out this discussion.

That should give you lots of info (possibly too much :D ) and answer tons of questions.
Click to expand...

Thanks everyone for the help. I went to the nearest Best Buy and Circuit City hoping to find the HV20 or the HC7, found neither. I forgot the 20 s/b out anytime, but the HC7 was nowhere to be found. I did find an HC5 though. Any thoughts?
 
I know the HC7 is shipping now...Multimedia just got his this past week and a couple of other users have theirs. Like you said, the Canon is either shipping now or soon, Canon moved the date up from May to late March (can't remember the exact date).
 
Get A Sony HDR-HC7 HDV Camcorder. Have You Read The Thread?

Coach B said:
My first post!!!
I am currently in the market for a new camcorder. I am willing to spend as much as I need to for a good camera, but after all the research I have done I am now more confused than ever. Most of the cameras I am considering are in the $1000-$1800 price range. I want something small enough that you can carry around an amusement park, and easy to use. The less "stuff I must deal with the better. I originally purchased a JVC Everio (sp?), but returned it do to poor video quality. I love the idea of High Def because I have a HD Plasma tv and a home theatre system set up. I am concerned with the new HD type AVCHD because I have read that iMovie does not support it, although I would think they would soon...
DVD sounds ok, but more to have to lug around, same with dv tape.
The new Panasonic sounded interesting with the SD card, but it is AVCHD.
What is the best way to go? Buy the Panasonic (I love the size, look and feel) and just keep buying SD cards until there is a Mac compatible edit software? I use iMovie to make little movies of my kids.
Is there a way to copy AVCHD to my hard drive and save it until an editing software becomes available?

AAAUUUUGGH
Click to expand...
AVCHD is for sissys. Don't be a Sissy. Bottom line is the AVCHD "standard" Maxes out at 24Mbps and everythign for sale so far is running at 15Mbps MAX. HDV is 25Mbps MPEG2 and totally iMovie, FCE HD 3.5 and FCP 5.1UB compatible. You want maximum quality images of your children's irreplaceable moments don't you? Then you want HDV. Carrying around an extra roll of tape is not a lot of trouble. They are very small and now suddenly Metal Evaporated HDV Professional quality tape from Maxell is only $4.50 a reel.

Buy a Sony HDR-HV7 HDV Camcorder. Have you studied the thread?

292 Posts 16,603 views in only 40 days. Get with the program and stop being confused. This is IT! :eek: ;) :D

In the Poll all other HDV models are 20% While the HC7 is 30%. 27% are sticking with the obsolete DV while 23% are Just Curious.
 
Canon HV20 Started Shipping Last Monday March 19

TheAnswer said:
I know the HC7 is shipping now...Multimedia just got his this past week and a couple of other users have theirs. Like you said, the Canon is either shipping now or soon, Canon moved the date up from May to late March (can't remember the exact date).
Click to expand...
Canon HV20 started shipping last Monday March 19. Owners have them now.

It is MISSING a LANC port. You NEVER want to shoot underwater? You NEVER want to shoot with a tripod so you can control the zoom with a remote controller on the handle?

But it shoots 24P. I need LANC almost all the time. So Canon HV20 is a dud from my viewpoint. But I may buy one as a DECK for my HC7 'cause it's cheaper and I can shoot 24P without using the Zoom.
 
i have a sony hdv tape camcorder that is in your price range and it is very nice. it is small and there is also a water proof case wich, to me is a huge benefit. it also takes up to 4.0 or 6.0, depends on which one, megpix pictures and has a nice dial thingy for focus, exposure and white balance. it also has a touch screen and along with that it has a touch and focus feature in which you touch the screen and it'll focus on the object yo touched. all in all i love it, especialy for how small it is. (even got some tape from a few coasters at a theme park. those look nice in hd if not to shaky.) also has HDMI!

i would have to say this is the best choice of what i have seen and i look and did a lot of research!

ps i movie accsepts ot for me but not my friend so mby test on your comp first or some thing.
 
Sony HDR-HC7 Richmon22?

richmon22 said:
i have a sony hdv tape camcorder that is in your price range and it is very nice. it is small and there is also a water proof case wich, to me is a huge benefit. it also takes up to 4.0 or 6.0, depends on which one, megpix pictures and has a nice dial thingy for focus, exposure and white balance. it also has a touch screen and along with that it has a touch and focus feature in which you touch the screen and it'll focus on the object yo touched. all in all i love it, especialy for how small it is. (even got some tape from a few coasters at a theme park. those look nice in hd if not to shaky.) also has HDMI!

i would have to say this is the best choice of what i have seen and i look and did a lot of research!

ps i movie accsepts ot for me but not my friend so mby test on your comp first or some thing.
Click to expand...
You forgot to say which model. Sounds like the HC7. Is that right?
 
Coach B said:
The new Panasonic sounded interesting with the SD card, but it is AVCHD.
What is the best way to go? Buy the Panasonic (I love the size, look and feel) and just keep buying SD cards until there is a Mac compatible edit software?
Click to expand...
If you were to go that way, I'd suggest recycling a couple of 4GB SD cards and archiving the data from each card to a DVDR as you go along. That would be cheaper in the long run and more efficient than accumulating tapes. You'd just have to organize your work and take the minimal time to transfer and burn the data as you go.

Once you have the data DVDs, you'll need to convert the video to an editable format. MPEG Streamclip might do the trick but I'm not 100% certain about it.

For around $1800, I'd be really tempted to get the 3-CCD JVC HD7, but it represents an archive problem in case I wanted to hang onto some footage long-term. Its 60GB hard drive holds 5 hours of (real) 1920x1080i video. That's better than the 1440x1080i that AVHD and HDV systems record. The camera has a 1440x1080i recording mode as well. JVC is including a Blu-ray Disc authoring package (Windows only) with the camera. It records an MPEG2 transport stream at up to 30Mbps.
 
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