| Pref 1080p that probably records onto memory sticks and is small and handy for travelling with. |
Recommend me a good HD camcorder
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DaisyD 11,816 posts
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Registered 16 years ago -
Carlo 21,801 posts
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Registered 16 years ago/mindrubbers -
GrandTheftApu 6,117 posts
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Registered 18 years agoI think if you want something that can use memory stick it's going to have to be Sony.
Edit: As an alternative this looks good, 720p only though. -
Psychotext 70,652 posts
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Registered 15 years agoCarlo wrote:
Bastard. I came here to post something similar.
/mindrubbers
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DaisyD 11,816 posts
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Registered 16 years agoGrandTheftApu wrote:
There are others with SD cards etc, no?
I think if you want something that can use memory stick it's going to have to be Sony. -
GrandTheftApu 6,117 posts
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Registered 18 years agoOh yeah I thought you meant the flash memory format 'memory stick' as used by the PSP. -
Remember though that cards don't last hold huge amounts, so you'll either have to buy loads or carry round a laptop and HDD to transfer them onto. -
DaisyD 11,816 posts
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Registered 16 years agoHow about a combination of HDD and card? -
Well that'd be fine, though obviously you'd need a computer to transfer the data from the Memory Card to the HDD.
Saying that, most of the stuff I've heard about in regards to this has been for Pro equipment. It may be that the HD travelcams have a lot more compression or something so really I'm pretty useless with this I guess..gif)
Your best bet is to have a wander down to Tottenham Court Road and look in the shops there (Ask is probably your best bet), they can always advise you. -
DaisyD 11,816 posts
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Registered 16 years agoExcept I don't live in London. -
Lovemoose 1,002 posts
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Registered 20 years agoI've had a Canon HG10 here at school for the past few months. It's a hard disk one, but it's pretty much identical to the HF10 which uses SD cards.
I wish we'd gone for the HF10 instead to be honest; working with the number people that I do I have loads of different clips, and it's a right faff transferring stuff around and keeping track of material. Having said that, the ability to record an entire concert from beginning to end without changing tapes or cards is awesome (although you can't do that on the battery - 1h40 minutes is the absolute max I've had).
Picture wise, it's fantastic. The kids love seeing themselves in HD on a decent LCD or Plasma, and it's dealt well with both outdoor stuff like sports day, and really dark indoor stuff in the Drama Studio. It's got a mic input, so we get really decent sound for interviews and concerts.
The main issue I have (apart from the housekeeping) is that AVCHD is a pig of a format to edit. I use sony vegas 8.0, and it handles it very well, but that's on a decent machine (quad core 2.8ghz, 4 gig ram, decent raid array). Anything more than a year old or so, or with 1 gig of ram or less, tends to die if you want to do anything fancy with it. Also, the only way you can do anything in windows movie maker is if you get an intermediate conversion software like shedworx voltaic HD.
Haven't tried on any Macs so far (we've only just had some delivered last week) but I've heard reports that they'll handle an AVCHD file, but will convert up to full size avi files as an intermediate step, which are large.
The HD file format is a problem no matter what camcorder you go for though, every manufacturer has a different idea of what HD means. Keep an eye on resolutions and frame rates; they all tend to differ.
Other ones to consider are the Panasonic HD-SD1 or the Sonys - but not the tiny Sony; it's meant to be a bit of a pig. I avoided JVC after hearing file conversion horror stories, but spec-wise they're pretty cool. If I were re-buying now, (and I might do on a personal basis with a baby on the way) it'd be the Panasonic HD-SD1 or the Canon HF, depending on budgets.
Hope that helps. -
brokenkey 11,128 posts
Seen 12 hours ago
Registered 20 years agoMy Panasonic DMC TZ5 records in 720p HD. And its a pretty good camera as well. -
I'm thinking about picking up this one, personally. -
DaisyD 11,816 posts
Seen 5 years ago
Registered 16 years agomouse wrote:
I'm thinking about picking up this one, personally.
I saw that earlier today on an american sony site. It's small and shiny! -
DaisyD wrote:
mouse wrote:
I'm thinking about picking up this one, personally.
I saw that earlier today on an american sony site. It's small and shiny!
Indeed. In fact, thanks to you for digging the idea up again, I've just ordered it on Amazon - £480 seems like a good deal. -
DaisyD 11,816 posts
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Registered 16 years agoWhich pro stick did you get? The price of those things were one thing that puts me off it. -
DaisyD 11,816 posts
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Registered 16 years agoOooohhhh! The case you can get for it is Sexy! -
Yeah the case is nice. Can't quite afford that just yet though having bought the camera, heh. I think it comes with a 4gb stick iirc. Can probably find a cheapo unofficial one on ebuyer or something like that though, haven't really looked around yet. -
DaisyD 11,816 posts
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Registered 16 years agoMouse - I discussed that camcorder last night with El_MUERkO. We would appreciate your opinions once you've got. -
DaisyD 11,816 posts
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Registered 16 years agoNo - it's for my holiday with El_MUERkO. 
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askew 24,121 posts
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Registered 16 years agoThere's that Canon HV20 - about £500 if you shop around. -
An update for you Daisy. I had a bit of a play around on the weekend, but I'm still getting my head around the features so this isn't my definitive verdict.
Initial impressions are that it certainly looks lovely, and is much smaller than I imagined. The build quality is good and solid as you'd expect from something made entirely out of titanium. The LCD is gorgeous and bright, and you can still see it pretty well in bright daylight.
Interface is touch screen, which while kind of neat at first does feel a tiny bit awkward at times, but nothing particularly annoying. The usability itself is spot on really; very intuitive but allowing you to quickly dig deeper should you need to.
Finally, the film quality. Now, annoyingly I'm having a bit of trouble getting iMovie to pull the footage off the camera at a higher resolution than 520p, despite having told it to import at 1080i, which is stupid! So all my sample footage is coming out at 520. I'm going to shoot some more and try and get some higher resolution video uploaded before I send you a link, so that I know I'm doing it justice.
However, suffice to say that colour reproduction and balance is pretty much spot on, focusing is quick and accurate, and the level and quality of the zoom is still surprising me. Also, the timed slow-motion clip function is an absolute wonder!
Any other cons? As far as I can tell, the 1080i preview footage I've managed to view is a tiny bit soft, but that's about it. I'd be very surprised if you got better quality footage at this resolution on another camera of this size. And besides that, handheld HD footage isn't going to look any worse at 720p, in fact probably better.
As I said, I'll update the thread again with some decent footage that might help you make up your mind.
Edit: In my travels, I did read that the Sanyo HD1000 was a good contender to this camera, being a bit cheaper and also records in a much friendlier H264 MP4 format. Something that's worth considering if you aren't as shallow as I am and fallen in love with the looks of the TG3 -
DaisyD 11,816 posts
Seen 5 years ago
Registered 16 years agoTBH I kinda fell for the T3 before even starting this thread! But I am still open to consideration of other makes and models. 
Thanks for the initial review, mouse. -
Got some footage that I shot on the way home from work here. Must apologise for it being very shaky because I'm shaky, it was windy, and I was laughing at certain points because I was listening to Adam & Joe whilst filming. Hopefully you can get an idea of the output quality, although you do have to of course bear in mind that it's been compressed so is a bit softer than viewing the footage directly from the memory stick (that compressed video is only 30mb or something). -
DaisyD 11,816 posts
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Registered 16 years agoThat's pretty damn good! -
DaisyD 11,816 posts
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Registered 16 years agoDid it come with a memory stick btw or did you buy one in the end? -
Came with a 4gb stick -
pistol 13,018 posts
Seen 8 years ago
Registered 19 years agoHi Daisy,
Not sure if I'm too late but I can highly recommend the Canon HF100. I've had it for a few months and it's bloody awesome. Get's great reviews too..
A 16GB card will give you 2 hours of HD footage and the cards are getting cheaper all the time. -
pistol 13,018 posts
Seen 8 years ago
Registered 19 years agoDaisy, what did you end up buying?
I'm having a lot of fun with my Canon HF100 and it's sooo light coz it uses SD cards.
Can't recommend it enough.
The HF10 is pretty much the same camera, although it is black and has a HD instead of using cards. It's heavier than my HF100 though. -
I've not bought anything yet. I'm slowly considering!
.gif)
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