£1000 to spend on HD camcorder

[gixxer1000]

Folks, I finally decided to take the plunge and buy a camcorder. Will use it mostly to video the kids I'm sure, but I am a keen amateur photographer so may well get more into it than that. Definitely either want HDD or Flash Memory (i.e. not tapes or DVD) and also want top quality images.

Was thinking therefore of either:

JVC Everio GZ-HD6EK
Canon HF10

I've toyed with the idea of buying one for a good few years now and have a friend who swears by the JVC 3CCD system. That's my only reference, so I thought I would ask you folks for advice/help/....

Does anyone own any of the above?
Has anyone looked into them but chosen something else?
Is there something else I should be considering?

I've set a budget of £1k for the purchase.

Many thanks,
Gixxer.

[gixxer1000]

Wow - that's my first ever no response post. I thought there would be lots of folks out there with an opinion. Was my question really that uninteresting?

Ho hum....

Gixxer.

[Roop]

I too am looking at this but was going for the Panasonic SD9. Any reason this isn't on your shortlist...?

[m12_nathan]

I've got the SD5 - the one before the 9, it is good though you need a powerful PC to edit AVCHD, and Adobe Premiere doesn't support it yet either so I had to use Sony Vegas.

[m12_nathan]

No where near the OP budget though so you can probably get better. I paid £320 for the SD5.

[RVVUNM]

Do not get a JVC, I have had mine for 18 months and it has been painful. A friend of mine bought a Sony at the same time and has had no problems at all. The main problem i've had are with the transfer to PC.

[gixxer1000]

Roop said:

I too am looking at this but was going for the Panasonic SD9. Any reason this isn't on your shortlist...?

No reason Roop. I don't know anything about the Panasonics. Just read this review, which is very complementary - http://www.trustedreviews.com/camcorders/review/20...

I'll definitely put that on the shortlist.

Cheers,
Gixxer

[Roop]

m12_nathan said:

I've got the SD5 - the one before the 9, it is good though you need a powerful PC to edit AVCHD, and Adobe Premiere doesn't support it yet either so I had to use Sony Vegas.

Thanks - interesting post. Not wishing to hijack here so apologies for minor tangential deflection but I have a 3GHz P4 with RAID0 and 1GB RAM. Once I get the camera I'll up that to 4GB (Mobo max) with that I hope to have enough oomph.

I have an older version of Premiere (1.5 IIRC) but I do have Pinnacle 10.5 or 11 (can't remember ATM) so hoping there'll be an AVCHD CODEC / support for the latter. Not that arsed about Premiere TBH. For the basic stuff there are better products out there now - especially camera -> edit -> DVD, only when it comes to the real nitty gritty does Premiere Excel (IMHO).

[gixxer1000]

RVVUNM said:

The main problem i've had are with the transfer to PC.

Can you tell me a bit more about the problem RVVUNM?

Thanks,
Gixxer

[Roop]

gixxer1000 said:

Roop said:

I too am looking at this but was going for the Panasonic SD9. Any reason this isn't on your shortlist...?

No reason Roop. I don't know anything about the Panasonics. Just read this review, which is very complementary - http://www.trustedreviews.com/camcorders/review/20...

I'll definitely put that on the shortlist.

Cheers,
Gixxer

No worries. I am a bit Panasonic fan (all my consumer electronics are Panasonic). Simply because their stuff seems to deliver high quality over a sustained period. The SD9 also hooks right into my Panasonic Plasma either HDMI or I believe I can chuck the SD card into the slot on the front of the tele. As a result of the above, I am biased for sure - read the independent reviews online, try them out in the shops and get feedback from owners - the magazines are all bent (IMHO, allegedly etc)...

[RVVUNM]

gixxer1000 said:

RVVUNM said:

The main problem i've had are with the transfer to PC.

Can you tell me a bit more about the problem RVVUNM?

Thanks,
Gixxer

When I hooked up via the usb cable the camcorder displayed an error 50% of the time. When it did work, the video files would be stored in a different place each time,sometimes in My Works other times in a random file. The software came with the camera and was very hard to understand. I did manage to burn various films over time but not without pain.
I am vary aware the part of the problem was operator ignorance but when I used my mates Sony it worked fine.

[clonmult]

RVVUNM said:

gixxer1000 said:

RVVUNM said:

The main problem i've had are with the transfer to PC.

Can you tell me a bit more about the problem RVVUNM?

Thanks,
Gixxer

When I hooked up via the usb cable the camcorder displayed an error 50% of the time. When it did work, the video files would be stored in a different place each time,sometimes in My Works other times in a random file. The software came with the camera and was very hard to understand. I did manage to burn various films over time but not without pain.
I am vary aware the part of the problem was operator ignorance but when I used my mates Sony it worked fine.

Have you got access to anything with firewire? My first attempts at taking video from a DV camcorder was via USB - it rarely worked. But via firewire I had no problems whatsoever.

[RVVUNM]

clonmult said:

RVVUNM said:

gixxer1000 said:

RVVUNM said:

The main problem i've had are with the transfer to PC.

Can you tell me a bit more about the problem RVVUNM?

Thanks,
Gixxer

When I hooked up via the usb cable the camcorder displayed an error 50% of the time. When it did work, the video files would be stored in a different place each time,sometimes in My Works other times in a random file. The software came with the camera and was very hard to understand. I did manage to burn various films over time but not without pain.
I am vary aware the part of the problem was operator ignorance but when I used my mates Sony it worked fine.

Have you got access to anything with firewire? My first attempts at taking video from a DV camcorder was via USB - it rarely worked. But via firewire I had no problems whatsoever.

No I don't have a firewire facility. I am buying a Sony and starting again.

[twister]

Roop said:

I do have Pinnacle 10.5 or 11 (can't remember ATM) so hoping there'll be an AVCHD CODEC / support for the latter.

11 does AVCHD out of the box, but as others have said, editing is slow - I'm on a 3GHz Core2Duo XP box with 2GB of RAM and separate hard drives for OS and data, and I avoid AVCHD editing as much as possible because it's utterly tedious. If you're just working with one or two files in a project then it's just about bearable, but if you're trying to edit together a bunch of different clips then make sure you've got a good book to read...

[poah]

Canon range is recommended and the HV20/30 tape units record with the best quality as they use HDV check out http://www.hv20.com