The choice between MiniDV and HDD has been made: I'm going with MiniDV. I might be wrong, but I get the feeling that I don't need the benefits that HDD offers; whereas MiniDV provides me with better image quality for the money, a more flexible video format and there's no chance of the hard disk freezing or jumping. There's also the fact that I've aleady got a lot of miniDV tapes ready for use.
So which one should I get? Well I've done a fair amount of looking around and for the price bracket I'm looking at the choice has come down to 2:
(Note that model names may differ outside the UK)They're both about the same price (online) and they should both offer very good image quality. Here are the advantages of the sony as I see them:
- True widescreen: there's no clipping to get it into 16:9
- AV-in: which would allow me to attach a helmet cam
Here are the advantages of the Panasonic, as I see them:
- Optical image stabalisation, which should come in handy while on the move
- Better shape, which should make it easier to hold while on the move
It seems that I was previously misguided about wide angle converters: it is perfectly OK to use either the manufacturers own (and recommended) converter - or a 3rd party converter, providing you get the right size. I think the Panasonic has a more standard 37mm lens, which should mean a greater choice and hopefully a cost saving.
I haven't totally made my mind up yet, but I'm leaning towards the Panasonic...
6 comments:
dude get HDD. trust me. each time you hit pause or record it creates a mov file on the storage. that is your clip, it makes editing stuff a lot faster.. plus its really easy to review footy from the cam because each clip is a file and you'll have a little browser and you can just select a clip vs looking on tape
jp - that's totally unfair making me reconsider the options again :-)
The main thing that attracted me to HDD in the first place was the ability to delete clips on the camera in a similar way to how people use a digital camera - throwing away the stuff you don't want.
The fact that getting the data onto a pc would be much quicker was a bonus, but it was the ease of deletion and arrangement of clips that was most appealing.
Can you delete the individual clips on-camera, or do you have to wait until you've transferred them to pc?
Have you used you camera while snowboarding? Did you have any problems with the HD skipping/freezing?
And what format do the files come out in?
haven't had any problems other then really cold batteries. you can delete clips right on the camera, its like a mini pc. no problems with skipping or freezing and i've had my hdd out in -20F.. it varies on the type of files, some are .mov some need to be converted which is easy
Haa haa... decisions are hard! After reading Gavin's post and talking with a friend, I was at Fry's tonight looking at the Mini-DV... I walked past the display HDD cam they had and got to thinking... I couldn't buy the mini DV.. came back home to read around and now I found this thread!
The HDD is an extra $300 easy... *groan*
Oh, by the way, this is the HDD cam I was looking at:
Sony_Handycam_DCR_SR40
For more information regaurding video camcorders and video camcorder reviews visit.
www.videomaker.com
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