hard drive camcorders

[Ghoste]

The good, the bad, the indifferent, any buying tips for them too?

[Orange_Crush]

I have a JVC.  I don't like it.

Yes, it is compact and reasonably easy to operate, but actually downloading the videos to your computer is a PITA.  You can buy a DVD burner for it tyhat makes things a little easier.

[Ghoste]

Do you wish that you had just bought a dvd recorder instead?  We have an old 8mm tape recorder that it is becoming pretty much impossible to find blanks for and a mini dvd that isn't so easy to always find blanks for either plus it only gives me 30 minutes at a shot.

[Finn]

I have a Sony hd hardrive camera. Love it. It's one click off loading too.

[beware the sleeper]

depending on the money, I use a dte system, it plugs into my cannon gl2 and records the dv feed as raw dv data into itself, and then you just play it out like a tape deck to the computer, I would reccomend it if you have a nice camera but dont want to wear out the decks.  can get a little pricy though.

[John_Kunkel]

The most common complaint I hear about hard drive recorders is short battery life compared to non-disc types.

[twodko]

I shot pro video for 26 years and I can tell you........you get what you pay for especially at the consumer grade level. I used Ikegami, Sony Betacam and Sony Digital SP cams. These are top of the line professional minicams, both brands built for heavy continuous field use. The Sony's rarely failed in the field......rain, snow, sand storm, forest fires you name it. Hard disc minicams were just coming into network use when I retired in 2004.
If I were to buy a consumer grade HD camcorder it would be a Sony, no question. Buy an AC supply and extra batts too because they will burn through your batts.

Tom

[472 R/T SE]

I just bought a Sony DCR-SX40.  I didn't like the fact with the old one I had to burn a disc before I could watch, edit it on the puter.
With my SX40, it's the lowest internal memory but the zoom is the same as the higher money, memory cameras.  I just bought an extra card & it's way cheaper that route.
With the battery I got one off ebay that has over 600 minutes of usage & the external charger for $35.  1 year warranty.  The batteries at Best Buy were a fraction of the minutes for $70-90.

Best part is the ease of loading onto the computer.  From capturing the video to You Tube in less than a minute.

[Tilar]

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,57157.msg637427.html#msg637427


I have the JVC and I love it... Especially now that I've figured out the software that comes with it to edit the videos. 

[beware the sleeper]

yeah sony has the extra color to them, I prefer the cannons just because the low light harshness is less, I have done some semi pro video stuff myself.  Thats one of the main advantages to a dte, is they can be switched on and off with the camera, so generally you can get about 3-4 hours of actual footage on em before you run out, which is you are doing band/skateboarding videos (you know sign me vids) some of these guys can play forever/try the same trick forever.

[runningman]

Don't mean to hijack but I have a question about the HD camcorders.  Do these record in 1080p?  Can you write this to a blu-ray disc?  What is the average cost for a blu-ray recorder?  Thanks

Matt