High-Def SDHC card camcorders

[Landlord]

Hello gang,

I'm after one of these camcorders that do true HD and record to SDHC cards - but I've not the foggiest about the current technology.

Is the Panasonic any good? I've got a panasonic tape camcorder that I bought about 10 years ago (though it was leading edge at the time) and it still works brilliantly (but I can't be arsed with downloading tapes, making sure I'm not overwriting etc. plus it's SD).

So - does anyone have any advice?

Cheers,
Phil.

[Plotloss]

By TrueHD one assumes you mean 1080p?

If so, mumble, mutter, grumble, banghead, kickdog, swear, tut, rolleyes, goforfag

[tburfield]

The Panasonic got poor reviews in low light, so I opted for the Canon HF100 (HF10 also available).

Have been really happy with image quality so far, although I've not had the camcorder too long.

Tony

[oobster]

I've heard the Canon HF100 is quite good.

http://fwd.five.tv/gadgets/audio-video/cameras/cam...

Just under £500 i think.

[Mattt]

Going for the HD 'Amateur' market then?

[Landlord]

Plotloss said:

If so, mumble, mutter, grumble, banghead, kickdog, swear, tut, rolleyes, goforfag

That's lost on me Matt? Am I being a techno-idiot by saying TrueHD? What I mean is I want great quality, wide-screen video of my boys doing funny things that will still look great in years to come!

Mattt said:

Going for the HD 'Amateur' market then?

See above... NO!

Cheers gents. The Canon looks interesting. I think I may go for that.

[Neil_H]

tburfield said:

The Panasonic got poor reviews in low light

Bit harsh, maybe they couldn't see it probably.

[h0b0]

I have the HF100 as well and the quality is good. When I was looking for a camera the Panasonic did not really get mentioned but the Sony came high. The down sides of the Canon are the low light level picture and lack of veiw finder. I would not buy the HF10 as it just has a built in memory card that can be bought at less than the difference in price.

Here is where I got mine from

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-HF100-Definition-Camco...

This was at a time when the pound was $2

h0b0

[Landlord]

h0b0 said:

I would not buy the HF10 as it just has a built in memory card that can be bought at less than the difference in price.

I went for the HF10 (actually I bought both with a view to sending one back) because it's down to 499 now. That's only a tenner more than the HF100 with 8Gb card on Amazon. So 16Gb of internal for a bit more than an 8Gb card. Plus, it means I can bung a 16Gb card and take hours and hours of footage (hooray!)

[sevros1981]

Landlord said:

Plotloss said:

If so, mumble, mutter, grumble, banghead, kickdog, swear, tut, rolleyes, goforfag

That's lost on me Matt? Am I being a techno-idiot by saying TrueHD? What I mean is I want great quality, wide-screen video of my boys doing funny things that will still look great in years to come!

I think what he was getting at was that these HD camcorders that claim true HD 1080p are tosh. It can record 1440 x 1080 interlaced but at a heavily compressed ratio, so don't expect it to look like a Blu-Ray on a HD telly.

[oobster]

Landlord said:

h0b0 said:

I would not buy the HF10 as it just has a built in memory card that can be bought at less than the difference in price.

I went for the HF10 (actually I bought both with a view to sending one back) because it's down to 499 now. That's only a tenner more than the HF100 with 8Gb card on Amazon. So 16Gb of internal for a bit more than an 8Gb card. Plus, it means I can bung a 16Gb card and take hours and hours of footage (hooray!)

Let us know your opinions on it when you've used it a few times please!

[Landlord]

oobster said:

Landlord said:

h0b0 said:

I would not buy the HF10 as it just has a built in memory card that can be bought at less than the difference in price.

I went for the HF10 (actually I bought both with a view to sending one back) because it's down to 499 now. That's only a tenner more than the HF100 with 8Gb card on Amazon. So 16Gb of internal for a bit more than an 8Gb card. Plus, it means I can bung a 16Gb card and take hours and hours of footage (hooray!)

Let us know your opinions on it when you've used it a few times please!

Will do!

[bobthemonkey]

I will await the "how the hell do I edit AVCHD" post.

[Landlord]

bobthemonkey said:

I will await the "how the hell do I edit AVCHD" post.

I read that. Mneh. I'll just archive it till it's simple.

[bobthemonkey]

Its not all that difficult in all honesty. There was some crap being thrown around in the early days, but is mostly sorted, providing you use up to date software.

Edited by bobthemonkey on Wednesday 17th December 15:09