Harddrive Camcorder Help

[hjr]

Im looking for information on h/dr camcorder's, basically which ones are decent and which ones arn't. the reason that im looking at a hard drive model is the video capturing length. Something more than the few hours that a DV tape or dvd will give (which also rules out flash drives). High-Def is not needed (dont have HD tv), but good quality is important. price range is probably under $1000 which seems to cover most non-HD h/dr camcorders.

Any experience out there? JVC has been doing it the longest if im not mistaken, but sony is supposed to have some quality in this field. Any help would be great.

[djayz]

a friend of mine had the jvc one when it first came out and he wasnt please with it. All the features and everything were great and the camera was nice and small but the most important thing wasnt there which was the quality of video. He had the 20gb model i think and it was able to store about 8-10hours of video but the video was worse than a digital compact camera's video. It couldnt take fast motion as it would streak and light conditions had to be good otherwise it always looked dark.

If your going to spend around $1000 look for a hi-def one cuz the regular ones arent that great.

[EG STyLeZ]

Originally posted by hjr
Im looking for information on h/dr camcorder's, basically which ones are decent and which ones arn't. the reason that im looking at a hard drive model is the video capturing length. Something more than the few hours that a DV tape or dvd will give (which also rules out flash drives). High-Def is not needed (dont have HD tv), but good quality is important. price range is probably under $1000 which seems to cover most non-HD h/dr camcorders.

Any experience out there? JVC has been doing it the longest if im not mistaken, but sony is supposed to have some quality in this field. Any help would be great.

if you're looking to spend under $1000, get the sony dcr-sr60 or dcr-sr80. either hdd camcorder has better video quality than anything jvc has to offer under $1000. closest one from jvc would be the gz-mg77.



Originally posted by djayz
a friend of mine had the jvc one when it first came out and he wasnt please with it. All the features and everything were great and the camera was nice and small but the most important thing wasnt there which was the quality of video. He had the 20gb model i think and it was able to store about 8-10hours of video but the video was worse than a digital compact camera's video. It couldnt take fast motion as it would streak and light conditions had to be good otherwise it always looked dark.

If your going to spend around $1000 look for a hi-def one cuz the regular ones arent that great.

there are no high-definition hdd camcorders that retail for less than $1000 at the moment. in fact, the only high-def hdd camcorder i even know of is the sony hdrsr1, but that thing is like $1800.

[hjr]

considering the Sony DCRSR60. seems like a decent product. any actual experience with it?

[Pihsiak]

stupid thing about the hard drive camcorders are that they do not have a rear view finder. You got to use the flip out on and it just kills the battery.

I know Sony has one model with the rear view finder but it is over 1G. It also has a 3 meg camera, a camera flash, and a 5.1 surround sound mic to justify the price.

Remember, the sonys have touch screen and night vision on all their camcorders.

[hjr]

neat - touch screen. But ya, the viewfinder would be useful in battery for battery saving. hmm. that is kind of the point (long shooting duration) so a dead batt. would not be helpful.

[EG STyLeZ]

Originally posted by Pihsiak
stupid thing about the hard drive camcorders are that they do not have a rear view finder. You got to use the flip out on and it just kills the battery.

I know Sony has one model with the rear view finder but it is over 1G. It also has a 3 meg camera, a camera flash, and a 5.1 surround sound mic to justify the price.

Remember, the sonys have touch screen and night vision on all their camcorders.

Yeah, there are no HDD camcorders under $1000 that have a viewfinder window on it.



Originally posted by hjr
neat - touch screen. But ya, the viewfinder would be useful in battery for battery saving. hmm. that is kind of the point (long shooting duration) so a dead batt. would not be helpful.

Just pick up a spare battery. I know sony makes at least a 7 hour battery, so that would be good enough to fill up the 30GB hard drive.

[Pihsiak]

Originally posted by EG STyLeZ

Just pick up a spare battery. I know sony makes at least a 7 hour battery, so that would be good enough to fill up the 30GB hard drive.

Energizer has a battery like that worth 140 bucks.
But 7 hrs? I think that is with the screen closed and if you are using the view finder (if it has one)

Other was I'd say it is a 3 1/2 hrs

[djayz]

http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/days_of_deals?c=ca&cs=CADHS1&l=en&s=dhs

dell has a 30gb hdd cam made by sony on their dell days of deals. Check it out

[EG STyLeZ]

Originally posted by Pihsiak


Energizer has a battery like that worth 140 bucks.
But 7 hrs? I think that is with the screen closed and if you are using the view finder (if it has one)

Other was I'd say it is a 3 1/2 hrs

The 7 hour energizer ones are actually about 5-6 hours using the screen, which on the sony camcorders you pretty much have to use because they're touch screen. The sony 7 hour batteries probably have slightly better performance, but the benefit of the sony brand battery is that you get the approx. remaining life on the battery in minutes because of the infolithium technology on the battery. The energizers don't provide this information.