OT: High Def camcorders

[andy mac]

help.

overwhelmed...!!!

any tips on what to look for, recommendations for an HD camcorder? (i'm assuming HD beats the older technology.)

price wise - less is good.

any advice much appreciated.



andy

[jhcakilmer]

Yes, the Hi def is absolutely higher quality, I've been lusting for some time now.....just can't afford one on a students budget.

How much do you want to spend?

[andy mac]

Originally Posted by jhcakilmer

Yes, the Hi def is absolutely higher quality, I've been lusting for some time now.....just can't afford one on a students budget.

How much do you want to spend?

Seems like there are a lot between $500 and $1000 at Amazon for instance.

http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=12369464...ort=reviewrank

Cheers,

Andy

[jbrainin]

Any of the affordable HD camcorders use massive compression in order to fit the much greater amount of data per video frame onto a mini-dv tape. (1920 x 1280 uses more than 7x the memory than 720 x 480--standard def--does.) The HD video world is still rather young and in a state of constant, and frequent, upheaval. There have recently been some significant new technologies to hit the market (Panasonic's new AVCHD technology) that should make their way down to lower priced consumer models within a couple of years.

For now, I'd save my money and get a cheap, decent SD mini-DV camcorder from any of the major makers.

[slowgoing]

generally, you're gonna need a fast computer and a separate video editing software package (not included with many camcorders) and HUGE AMOUNTS of disk space (I had to buy an external hard drive because the editing process took up all of my remaining internal hard drive space) and time to edit and burn DVDs. Plus you may need a blu-ray disk player in order to play the high def DVDs. Much harder and more time consuming to burn videos to DVDs than it used to be on the DVR I have hooked up to my TV.

[Lifelover]

Before going the HD route really research what it requires from a comuter stand point.

A friend with a decent computer and a HD camera is claiming it takes him 2 hrs + of computer time to to translate every hour of video. As mentioned before, the storage requried is crazy.

He is considering getting one of the top of the line Mac Pro's and is still predicting problems.

I think the camera tech is out pacing computer tech.

[Jawn P]

If you want to stick with a SD camera, I've got a nice 3chip I'm selling for not much

That being said, the points many people have been bringing up are valid. Unless you're shooting to P2 or Sony XDCam, there is going to be a level of compression. While it may be a big deal to some, I feel that you get a reasonable image quality and do not have to deal with the constraints (namely file size and render times) of an uncompressed format.

If you're looking for a consumer camera, the Canon HV20 is nice and relatively inexpensive.

On the prosumer level, my experiences with a Panasonic HVX200 and Sony EX1 have both been positive. If you're so interested I can expand into that a bit more.

[jbrainin]

Originally Posted by Lifelover

Before going the HD route really research what it requires from a comuter stand point.

A friend with a decent computer and a HD camera is claiming it takes him 2 hrs + of computer time to to translate every hour of video. As mentioned before, the storage requried is crazy.

He is considering getting one of the top of the line Mac Pro's and is still predicting problems.

I think the camera tech is out pacing computer tech.

I've recently acquired a Panasonic HMC-150 ACVHD cam. It is the little brother to their P2 cameras. Like them, it shoots to solid state media--in this instance, SDHC cards. The SDHC cards can easily be had for ~$50 for a 16gb card that will store 90 minutes of the highest quality video. It takes almost no time to transfer the files from the SDHC card to the hard drive on my MacBookPro and Final Cut recognizes them immediately. Problem is the going rate on this camera is about $3700.

[Jawn P]

Oh, also OP do you plan on editing on a PC or a Mac?

If it's the latter and you have any questions, let me know. Apple Product Professional at your service

[Lifelover]

Originally Posted by Jawn P

Oh, also OP do you plan on editing on a PC or a Mac?

If it's the latter and you have any questions, let me know. Apple Product Professional at your service

Why is it such a struggle to get Verizon mail to work in Mac mail with the newest OS?

I was setting up my parents new Imac with thier new Verizon DSL and it took me forever to get MAC mail to work with outgoing server. My friend that I talked about above still has not got his primary email account to work on his new macBook. I tested it on my OLD imac (half basketball kind) and got the accounts to work on the first go around.

I got it to work on the new one after hours of struggle and don't know what I did to make it work. There is a fair amount of talk of the problem online but no one seems to be able to nail it down.

[andy mac]

Originally Posted by Jawn P

Oh, also OP do you plan on editing on a PC or a Mac?

If it's the latter and you have any questions, let me know. Apple Product Professional at your service

Mac all the way baby!!!