Consumer Grade HD Video Cameras - Best Format? DVD, MiniDV, or HDD?

15 May 2007 11:10 PM

J. Hinkey

I'm looking at the Canon and Sony offerings in HD format.
Particularly the Sony models have a choice of recording medium of HDD, MiniDV, or DVD (8cm).

Which of these recoding types will give the best image quality?

I'm fully aware of the (in)convenience factors of each type (getting it off the camera, editing, etc.) I'm not planning no doing a lot of
editing, but am interested in good quality for archiving family hiking, trips, special occasions, etc. videos. Probably will store/archive all
video on computer HD.

Thanks -

John

16 May 2007 3:45 AM

PTravel

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"J. Hinkey" <jhin***@geminustd.com> wrote in message
news:Q46dnRtyRadmoNfbnZ2dnUVZ_ompnZ2d@seanet.com...
> I'm looking at the Canon and Sony offerings in HD format.
> Particularly the Sony models have a choice of recording medium of HDD,
> MiniDV, or DVD (8cm).
>
> Which of these recoding types will give the best image quality?
>
> I'm fully aware of the (in)convenience factors of each type (getting it
> off the camera, editing, etc.) I'm not planning no doing a lot of editing,
> but am interested in good quality for archiving family hiking, trips,
> special occasions, etc. videos. Probably will store/archive all video on
> computer HD.
>
> Thanks -
>
> John

Sony's HDV machines, which are only available in miniDV, will give you the
best quality. Sony's AVCHD machines, which come in a variety of formats,
deliberately limit the data bandwidth so as not to compete with Sony's
prosumer offerings. I don't know enough about Canon's implementations to
comment.

17 May 2007 11:34 PM

Smarty

John,

You might also take a look at Canon's new HV20, which provides HDV format
recording to tape, and has outstanding image quality for a camera in the
$1000 price range. Camcorderinfo.com does some very thorough comparisons of
HDV camcorders in this price range and compares recent Sony, Canon, and JVC
offerings.

Smarty
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"PTravel" <ptra***@travelersvideo.com> wrote in message
news:5avd3eF2pb3m1U1@mid.individual.net...
>
> "J. Hinkey" <jhin***@geminustd.com> wrote in message
> news:Q46dnRtyRadmoNfbnZ2dnUVZ_ompnZ2d@seanet.com...
>> I'm looking at the Canon and Sony offerings in HD format.
>> Particularly the Sony models have a choice of recording medium of HDD,
>> MiniDV, or DVD (8cm).
>>
>> Which of these recoding types will give the best image quality?
>>
>> I'm fully aware of the (in)convenience factors of each type (getting it
>> off the camera, editing, etc.) I'm not planning no doing a lot of
>> editing, but am interested in good quality for archiving family hiking,
>> trips, special occasions, etc. videos. Probably will store/archive all
>> video on computer HD.
>>
>> Thanks -
>>
>> John
>
> Sony's HDV machines, which are only available in miniDV, will give you the
> best quality. Sony's AVCHD machines, which come in a variety of formats,
> deliberately limit the data bandwidth so as not to compete with Sony's
> prosumer offerings. I don't know enough about Canon's implementations to
> comment.
>

18 May 2007 12:05 AM

J. Hinkey

Smarty wrote:

> John,
>
> You might also take a look at Canon's new HV20, which provides HDV format
> recording to tape, and has outstanding image quality for a camera in the
> $1000 price range. Camcorderinfo.com does some very thorough comparisons of
> HDV camcorders in this price range and compares recent Sony, Canon, and JVC
> offerings.

Thanks - I've been doing a lot of research and I've already been to most of the on-line camcorder review sites like Camcorderinfo.com.

Right now I'm looking seriously at the Canon HV-10 (~$750) because of it's compactness (I'm afraid if the camera is too big it won't be used as
much) + OIS + price (well below $1K) as well as the Sony HDR-HC5 (~$800) because of the front-facing microphone, LCD, and ergonomics, but it's a
bit bigger and a more awkward shape & does not have OIS.

I've played around with the HV-10 at circuit city, but did not get a chance to play with the Sony. The HV-20, alas, is a bit too far out of my
price range at the moment. If it were ~$750, there'd be no contest.

- John
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>
> Smarty
> "PTravel" <ptra***@travelersvideo.com> wrote in message
> news:5avd3eF2pb3m1U1@mid.individual.net...
>> "J. Hinkey" <jhin***@geminustd.com> wrote in message
>> news:Q46dnRtyRadmoNfbnZ2dnUVZ_ompnZ2d@seanet.com...
>>> I'm looking at the Canon and Sony offerings in HD format.
>>> Particularly the Sony models have a choice of recording medium of HDD,
>>> MiniDV, or DVD (8cm).
>>>
>>> Which of these recoding types will give the best image quality?
>>>
>>> I'm fully aware of the (in)convenience factors of each type (getting it
>>> off the camera, editing, etc.) I'm not planning no doing a lot of
>>> editing, but am interested in good quality for archiving family hiking,
>>> trips, special occasions, etc. videos. Probably will store/archive all
>>> video on computer HD.
>>>
>>> Thanks -
>>>
>>> John
>> Sony's HDV machines, which are only available in miniDV, will give you the
>> best quality. Sony's AVCHD machines, which come in a variety of formats,
>> deliberately limit the data bandwidth so as not to compete with Sony's
>> prosumer offerings. I don't know enough about Canon's implementations to
>> comment.
>>
>
>