Comments

riredale wrote on 5/19/2007, 2:57 PM
Need more information. What uses?

For general-purpose stuff, I'd look at a slightly-used Sony HC3, or the new Canon HV20, which can apparently be bought for the mid- $800's. I have the HC3 and think it's a wonderful camera, built like a tank and very compact; the HV20 is the current darling of review sites like camcorderinfo.com.

Both of these are HDV cameras, meaning the video will be wide-screen and incredibly sharp compared to what you've done before. Either edit in HD, or download DV to the computer and work with that. Either way, I think you'll be very happy one day your original footage on the tape is in HD.
farss wrote on 5/19/2007, 3:25 PM
If you don't want to make the jump to HDV then the Panny 3chippers like the GS500 seem to be the best of the bunch, and you get real 16:9.
jonasmckee wrote on 5/19/2007, 3:29 PM
also.. am i being a nut insisting on staying with dv tape? is hdd comparabel in quality and editing? say the sony sr300?
jonasmckee wrote on 5/19/2007, 6:21 PM
also if i film with a high def cam can i render or convert to standard def?
Serena wrote on 5/19/2007, 7:50 PM
You can render HDV to SD DVD very successfully.

Tape is fine, particularly in your price range.

Editing HDV does need computer power, but there are ways around that. One is to use Gearshift (see VASST site and threads here) which allows you to edit DV proxies and have these swapped out for the HDV clips prior to rendering. Anyway, you can always convert from HDV to DV on download, and still have the tapes with HD should you wish to redo later.
vicmilt wrote on 5/20/2007, 9:09 AM
Am not familiar with current crop of cameras, but strongly suggest heading to HDV. (This is totally different from what I was writing three years ago... the times have changed and it's now time to upgrade - in my opinion)
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24Peter wrote on 5/21/2007, 6:37 AM
I vote for the Canon HV20... Continue to be amazed by this little camera.
Laurence wrote on 5/21/2007, 6:45 AM
With an HDV camera you can downconvert the footage as you capture it. In other words, you can shoot HDV and capture as SD. When you do this you get an image that is still much better than if you had shot SD. Even if I was going to work in SD, I would buy an HDV camera for this feature alone.
jonasmckee wrote on 5/22/2007, 4:56 PM
is there a setting for downconverting? and hasn't there been some problems with the canon hv20 and sony?
jonasmckee wrote on 5/22/2007, 5:02 PM
i saw your video's on youtube very good my friend!
24Peter wrote on 5/23/2007, 7:44 AM
I think you're referring to my videos, so thanks.

As far as downconverting from HDV to DV on the HV20, there is a setting in-camera that allows you to output HDV video as DV video (there's also the option to shoot DV as well.)

As for problems using the HV20 with Vegas, the only issue - and this is NOT specific to Vegas - is that if you shoot 24p with the HV20 the camera apparently does not include flags to allow automatic pulldown removal. So currently none of the major NLE's can do automatic pulldown removal on HV20 24p footage. (Cineform products and some other software/ freeware packages do flagless pulldown removal so they will work on HV20 24p footatge.)

I have been editing my 24p footage in Vegas 7e as 60i footage and for regular DVD's it seems fine. However, for computer video files (e.g., .wmv) I notice ghosting. If you shoot 60i with the HV20, then Vegas works fine.

Also - just an FYI: my Youtube videos were shot with a Panasonic DVX100 - not the HV20 (only got it a couple of weeks ago). But I did sell my DVX almost immediately after seeing how good 24p from the HV20 is. Once we get the flag issue straightened out (many of us have emailed Canon asking for a firmware update), the HV20 will be totally good to go.

jonasmckee wrote on 5/23/2007, 9:29 AM
ok this is going to sound stupid but what exactly is "automatic puldown removal" and is it possible for you to attach maybe a few second raw captured file so i can see what you mean?..

24Peter wrote on 5/23/2007, 10:33 AM
Here are some threads to look at on the issue from HV20.com:
http://www.hv20.com/showthread.php?t=324
http://www.hv20.com/showthread.php?t=296