HDD Video Camera

[carsarecool]

Hi All,

I'm looking to get a hard drive video camera and thought I'd ask if anyone could reccommend one from the current models available.

I'm usually biased towards Sony, but I'm open to any good suggestions.

Budget up to about £500.

Thanks in anticipation.


Mart

[DanH]

As an FYI - these don't work in moving vehicles if that was something you hoped to do. They shut down due the vibration to protect the hard disk.

[Olf]

I opted for a miniDV HD option, the Canon HV20.

Very pleased so far. Works well with a Mac which Sony generally don't if thats a consideration?

[TheMaskedAvenger]

What are the feeling about memory card based systems? Currently looking at a Camcorder replacement myself.

[furtive]

I've got a Sony one. Can't remember what model it is but it it's got a 50Gb hard drive and works great - highly recommended. So much easier than mucking around with tapes.

[clonmult]

TheMaskedAvenger said:

What are the feeling about memory card based systems? Currently looking at a Camcorder replacement myself.

I'm considering this as well - you can get a few hours of decent quality on an SD card - if you shop around you can get an 8gig SDHC for around £30. Add on one of the Sanyo Xactis (saw one at Jessops for £190), an extra battery and you've got a solid state camcorder that can do reasonable 6+mp stills for under £250.

Trying to get my housemate onto the idea of one as well - the Sanyos are very pocketable, and would (hopefully) be perfect for him on his forthcoming ski holiday.

[ewenm]

clonmult said:

TheMaskedAvenger said:

What are the feeling about memory card based systems? Currently looking at a Camcorder replacement myself.

I'm considering this as well - you can get a few hours of decent quality on an SD card - if you shop around you can get an 8gig SDHC for around £30. Add on one of the Sanyo Xactis (saw one at Jessops for £190), an extra battery and you've got a solid state camcorder that can do reasonable 6+mp stills for under £250.

Trying to get my housemate onto the idea of one as well - the Sanyos are very pocketable, and would (hopefully) be perfect for him on his forthcoming ski holiday.

That's quite interesting. I'm thinking about investing in a camcorder of some sort soon for use when skiing/biking/trackdays/road trips etc (so helmet or car mounted bullet cam). Ligthweight/small would be good.

[fullbeem]

THe Xacti doesnt have a mounting for tripod on all the range.

I guess its finding a suitable cradle to fit

[TheCaseAce]

Might be unimportant/irrelevant to you but something people often forget is that if you are thinking of editing/playing your HD video using a PC, you will need a flippin' good PC.

The files it makes are massive and take huge amounts of memory and processing power to do anything with.

If you have an ageing PC, you'll find it an uphill struggle.

[furtive]

TheCaseAce said:

Might be unimportant/irrelevant to you but something people often forget is that if you are thinking of editing/playing your HD video using a PC, you will need a flippin' good PC.

The files it makes are massive and take huge amounts of memory and processing power to do anything with.

If you have an ageing PC, you'll find it an uphill struggle.

Disagree. My PC isn't eactly cutting edge (AMD Athlon processor, AGP graphics, etc) and it is more than up to the job.

And the files that my Sony HDD camcorder makes are not very big at all.

[Olf]

TheCaseAce said:

Might be unimportant/irrelevant to you but something people often forget is that if you are thinking of editing/playing your HD video using a PC, you will need a flippin' good PC.

The files it makes are massive and take huge amounts of memory and processing power to do anything with.

If you have an ageing PC, you'll find it an uphill struggle.

1 minute of 25fps full 1080 from my Canon is 500mb.