HANDYCAM-SONY SR 46 ????? Please Help in deciding

Question

I am planning to buy a Sony handycam Sr 46 how it is? in this budget any other model is better? In slightly higher budget any other model is there more preferred?

Answer 1

It depends what you plan on using the camcorder for. Hard drive (HDD)camcorders store video in a very highly compressed MPEG2 format. Some video editors need that conveerted to something they can use before you can edit the video.

There are two issues common to all HDD camcorders:

(Download the manual: http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-h...

1) They do not like vibration. If you are planning to record loud noise - bands (amplified or not), car races, jets... it is possible that the camcorder will not record video because the vibrations will park the hard drive heads, the buffer will fill and you will have a buffer overload - and no video.

Refer to page 4: Do not apply shock or vibration to the camcorder.

2) The do not like high altitude: In order for the hard drive heads to work properly, there needs to be enough air. Read the camcorder's manual (download from the Sony Support area):

Refer to page 4: Notes on using the camcorder at high altitude

I would suggest you investigate either miniDV tape (better video quality) or flash memory (fewer moving parts) and skip HDD based camcorders...