Calling all Top Contributors, need ur camcorder opinion (recommendation)...?

Question

I've been reading reviews on camcorders and I've filtered my selection to these three: Sony HDR-SR12, Sony HDR-HC9 and Canon HV30.

Which of these 3 would you recommend, plus ur review that would give me all these qualities:

1. very good video quality;

2. good picture even on low lighting;

3. easy to operate (specially on downloading and editing for movie making) for beginners like me.

I've got only a month to decide so really need ur replies. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You don't need a top contributor, you need someone who's worked with those cameras.

Search for reviews online in videomaking and DV magazines. Try dvinfo.net

Answer 2

ok dude...Just keep it simple.  Get a regular SD MiniDV camcorder.  Try to get one with a manual focus ring.  Ask a lot of questions about the quality of the CCD chips.  3 is the best number.

Keep you camera simple and invest instead in a nice lighting setup.  Lighting is much more important than what kind of camera you have.  If you light everything properly, then your footage will look great.  If you don't light it properly then no technology will save you.

For editing, I'd suggest Adobe Premiere Elements.  It has a nice simple setup with room to expand your skills.  

Contact me for more information about editing programs.

Answer 3

HV30: Uses MiniDV tape; imports DV or HDV using Firewire (IEEE1394a, i.Link - all the same thing). Tape IS the archive (do not reuse tapes). Can do 24p. Has mic-in jack and full manual audio control.

HC9: Uses MiniDV tape; imports DV or HDV using Firewire (IEEE1394a, i.Link - all the same thing). Tape IS the archive (do not reuse tapes). Has "Smooth slow record" slow motion feature and can do zero light with built-in infrared emitter, but reciorded video is monochromatic (green/white). Has mic-in jack and full manual audio control.

SR12: In it's current implementation, I wouldn't touch anything that uses AVCHD for video compression at the point of video capture. It compresses too much and not all video editors can handle all camcorder manufacturer's AVCHD implementations. Please do not confuse "ease" with speed. Downloading video from a hard drive (or flash memory) based camcorder might be faster than importing from miniDV tape, but that does not make it easier. If you follow all the steps, the first thing you do after downloading the video to your computer is copy the files to an external drive or to optical disc. All that "saved" time, just went int making your archive/backup. In the miniDV tape world, the tape you shot is the archive backup. Then, when the project is complete, with a miniDV tape based camcorder, export the project back to the camcorder. Want to watch in high-def? connect the high-def camcorder and use it as a deck - can't do that with a hard drive (or flash memory) based camcorder.

There's lots more reasons, but take the hint from the pros:

http://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBus...

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/contro...

http://www.panasonic.com/business/provid...

http://pro.jvc.com/prof/attributes/categ...

No internal hard drives using AVCHD (with the exception iof a single incorrectly categorized Panasonic)... The pros use external hard drives like those from Firestore

http://firestore.com/solutions/catalog.a...

which save video in DV and HDV format... just like miniDV tape.

You might not be a pro, but miniDV tape has been around for a couple of years and it works, is stable, affordable and the video editing applications that say they handle HDV can handle it from any camcorder.

You may need to add a firewire 400 port to your computer - Apple Macintosh computers have had them for many years. Using the DV port on the camcorder, connect to the Firewire 400 port on the computer with a firewire (IEEE1394, i.Link) cable. Launch the video editing application. The camcorder needs to be in "Play/Edit" mode. Import or capture.