thanks Eugenia, i was looking at your video and i noticed you said you graded your video with magic bullet, whats that?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_bullet_%28software%29
It's not available for purchase for Vegas anymore though. The new version that will be available for vegas is not out yet and no one knows when it will be released, although the company promised a new vegas version.

i would have thought hard drive camcorders would be better than mini dv

No. Hard drive camcorders are more *convenient*, but not "better". If you are after visual quality, then HDV at 25mbps is still better than AVCHD at 13 mbps.

AVCHD is the future. But only if you have a VERY powerful PC, and you don't mind the visual quality problems.

I purchased a Sony HDR-HC3 approx 18 months ago. Found it on eBay (with a 30 day return policy) for $800.

The camera captures brilliant 1080i HDV on to minDV tapes, and my jaw dropped on first viewing. The camera also has an auto down convert to DV that also looks outstanding.

It has HDMI, iLink, and USB output ports, and takes 4MB still photos.. I am tempted to buy another unit before prdocution of this gem is halted.

The only downfall is, I spent about 3x the camera price building a new video edit system to handle the HDV :-)

kool.... thanks for the info very appreciated

The HC3 is already out of production - it was replaced by the HC5 in the middle of last year (although you can still find them around).

(I've got an HC3 too - excellent camcorder).

Tony

hey Eugina i'm pretty much sold on the hv20 buy i seen a review about the dark shots. i plan on using this camera for wedding and when the lights go down should i be looking for a backup camera?

Low light test http://vimeo.com/713618

thanks Eugina I got it, and i got in luck with a zr800 open box circuit city for $150, they didn't have this camera anywhere else... sold out.
again thanks for the info

I assume your ZR800 is Canon. If so, I have the ZR600, purchased about 18 months ago. It's a great little camera and one of the main reasons I purchased it was the size. It was an upgrade from the Sony TRV (maybe 340 though I'm not positive).

My first video camera was analog and I used one tape until it wouldn't tape any more. In those days (mid 90s), the only thing I knew to do was copy the video directly onto a VHS tape. When I bought the Sony I also bought a new computer with DVD software so learned how to load the video onto a DVD.

Loved the Sony and the digital quality but, honestly, the camera was too heavy to hold up for any length of time. The Canon solved that by making a lightweight, very portable unit that captures great video. With both the Sony and Canon, I use one tape until it is full and I do not reuse them. I label each one and yes, I have gone back and used them again at times.

Good luck with the new camcorder. Canon makes good products and I hope you enjoy it.

I assume your ZR800 is Canon. If so, I have the ZR600, purchased about 18 months ago. It's a great little camera and one of the main reasons I purchased it was the size. It was an upgrade from the Sony TRV (maybe 340 though I'm not positive).

My first video camera was analog and I used one tape until it wouldn't tape any more. In those days (mid 90s), the only thing I knew to do was copy the video directly onto a VHS tape. When I bought the Sony I also bought a new computer with DVD software so learned how to load the video onto a DVD.

Loved the Sony and the digital quality but, honestly, the camera was too heavy to hold up for any length of time. The Canon solved that by making a lightweight, very portable unit that captures great video. With both the Sony and Canon, I use one tape until it is full and I do not reuse them. I label each one and yes, I have gone back and used them again at times.

Good luck with the new camcorder. Canon makes good products and I hope you enjoy it.

Eugenia (and others), I almost bought the HV20 a few weeks ago, but heard that some new camcorders might be announced in March, so I opted to wait, and I continued doing research.

So far, all my research confirms that the HV20 is an excellent choice, although the new HG10 looks like a close second, if you're willing to forego its poor 24p shooting.

I was a little surprised to discover that even HDV is compressed MPEG-2, and I wonder what impact that has on editing? Is it still simpler than editing AVCHD? I assume neither is as clean as DV. I did read that editing HDV isn't too bad, because the NLE rebuilds the frames in the local area when you do a split, keyframe, etc, rather than rebuilding the file globally.

Anyway, my biggest questions right now are (1) how smooth is editing for each, and (b) how reliable is firewire? Ok, I know that second sounds stupid, but the reason for my concern is that the firewire on my Sony DVR460 went out, and I discovered it's not an uncommon problem.

thanks

HDV is much faster to edit than AVCHD, yes. So if you don't have a truly fast machine, HDV is a better deal. You still need a 3 year old CPU or younger to do HDV. For AVCHD even the fastest machine out there will be lacking.

hey Eugenia

i had a problem with my hv20 firewire port which packed in so after two days of serious mourning i got the hg10 and ive started editing on avchd thanks to you. i dont feel the difference on my pc i have a quad core and 2 gig ram and a 8800 gcard and even with adding mbullet effects which slows everything down it renders much the same in speed. so i am happy with the hg10

What the fx,

You could have your HV20 fixed.
I have an HV10 with a firewire port that went out a couple of weeks ago. Sent it back to Canon and got it back in a week. Works great again. They thought the problem was an attempt to insert the cable into the computer port backward, which they said would blow out the camera port. That may have happened because the computer port is on the back and hard to reach or see. Although the cable wouldn't insert backward, one of the pins may have touched.

My bottom line here is that the Canon service was excellent - very fast, efficient, and capable.

Dave

My firewire port is not very good either on the HV20. It's just not very strong, that's the real problem. However, the HV20 beats the HG10 in quality any time of the day, so I stay with it.