What would you do, purchase wise?

[rotlex]

New dilemma regarding my camcorder woes, LOL. Unfortunately, I need to make a decision by tomorrow, to get either of the deals I've been able to find.

Basically, as I posted in another thread, I'm replacing my cam. (A 3 month old Sony SR5 HDD cam, that I am not 100% happy with). I've been doing a lot of thinking about it, and thought I had come to a decision. Well, today I learned I can pick up, locally no less, two different cams, this is where the decision part is hard, for the same price due to some coupons, and specials I've been able to obtain.

The dilemma is whether to stick with a hard drive based cam, or, move back to tape for long term storage reasons. The two cams are the Canon HG10, and the HV20. I can get either of them for $849. The HV20 is a no brainer as far as quality, and tape has good and bad points. The real issue here is I think that $849 is a GREAT price on the HG10, but I'm starting to have 2nd thoughts on a HDD cam, and AVCHD, although my current machine handles the AVCHD footage from the Sony quite well. I am really not sure what to do here, LOL.

Thoughts, comments, which would you pick if they were, as they are at the moment, the same price?

 

[prs986]

Well it depends. I personally prefer tape over HDD. I have the HV20 and it is an AWESOME camera. It has a ton of great features such as 24fps which is great if youre looking at doing some short films and such. Great quality. The beef I have with HDD is that its widely accepted in NLEs and just the fact that you can break the actual hard drive and then you're screwed. True the drag and drop is nice when it comes to capturing but tape is so much more reliable. Go for the HV20

 

[rotlex]

Well, just in case anyone was wondering, I went with the HV20. Decided that the current hassle of storage with AVCHD, just wasn't worth the eh, hassle, LOL.

The HV20 looks to be a great camcorder, both in reviews, and now in my hands. I'm actually kind of relieved to not have to worry about long term storage again, and still have the ability to import, edit, and do anything else easily with the footage.

 

[Sannekita]

I'd go for tape!
edit :woops sorry, you already picked!

 

[overanalyzer]

Just out of curiosity, doing some REALLY quick cursory searched on Amazon and Google Products, it looks like both the HV20 and the HG10 can be picked up in a variety of places for $800 or less. I have pretty much no expertise at all on camcorders, but have toyed with getting one at some point. What was the deal you got that motivated the quick decision?

EDIT: Even Costco.com, my general preferred place for electronics, has the HV20 for $799.99 including shipping. Is that a good deal?

 

[rotlex]

OK, last follow up. Just wanted to say that after spending a day with the HV20, I am 110% satisfied. This cam is simply amazing to work with, and the quality of the video, even when on full auto, is nothing short of stunning. I feel like I'm watching Discovery HD Theatre, LOL.

Highly recommended, and thrilled I made this choice!