Anyone got HDD CC?

[Kentish]

The latest technology camcorder appears to be HDD with no tape or disc but a hard drive (usually about 20GB). Pretty good value at around £600 and roughly 28 hours of recording time.

Anyone bought one yet and is it OK / GOOD / SUPERB?

Also, what make and model did you buy?

[cy88]

I just bought over lunch a JVC Everio GZ-MG21. I think JVC were the hard disk CC pioneers.
The one I got was just the basic 20 gig one that takes 4.5 hours of DVD quality film, or 24hours plus of internet quality footage. Cost £449.00.

Didn't think it was worth spending more as the 20gig one was the second version of the same model out this year (the first being the MG20) and FWIH cameras will be high definition in a year or so anyway.

Haven't taken it out the box yet, so can't tell you any more.

ETA: i too would be interested to hear any user comments. I only got it to take some film of the nipper.



>> Edited by cy88 on Wednesday 24th May 16:06

[ErnestM]

Question? How do you get the footage onto your hard drive for editing. Question 2? What format is it in?

ErnestM

[cy88]

ErnestM said:

Question? How do you get the footage onto your hard drive for editing. Question 2? What format is it in? ErnestM

THe one I have uses USB2 - the format is MPEG-2 video

(THe more expensive JVC MC models seem to use a 4 gig detachable microdrive as well as USB2, which gives 60 mins DVD quality footage and can be removed and plugged into the PC and read directly.)

>> Edited by cy88 on Wednesday 24th May 16:29

[ErnestM]

What do you use to edit your footage? Is it PAL 720x576?

My only comment would be that MPEG-2 is highly compressed and editing the footage will take some doing. I've imported MPEG-2 into Premier Pro before and it's a pain to work with and usually results in artifacts due to the compression...

ErnestM

[cy88]

I haven't tried editing yet, but it comes with three different editing packages. I'm going to load it up today and take some film once its charged.

Just reading the manual, there seems to be some degree of editing you can do on the camera itself

>> Edited by cy88 on Thursday 25th May 08:34

[Joe911]

I have two of the JVC Everio's, an MG30 and an MG70.

They both perform perfectly well as camcorders and the quality is acceptable.
The main gain from using these devices is the continuous recording time.

They will record to built-in SD memory cards instead of the hard drives - I'm finding that very useful (4GB cards).

They do NOT like harsh environments (i.e. bolted into a car). There is technology there to detect both vibration and shock and they will stop recording when this happens. In this instance recording to memory cards rather than the hard drive works well.

[b2tus]

Recall the JVC Everio's have no viewfinder. That one thing stopped me buying one because of shorter battery life using the screen all the time and in very bright light (safari/beach/skiing)it is difficult to see the detail on the screen.
Ended up buying a Panasoniv NV-GS500. Wow - what a machine.