2008 Camcorder suggestions (sub $1000)

[D. Hayes]

Last week my old Sony Digital 8 camcorder finally popped some gears and no longer records to tape. So I'm in the market for a Sub $1000 camcorder.

I first off was looking at the Canon HV-20/30 but after reading several reviews with concerns over the build quality, I'm a a bit turned off from buying those models. I really would like one of the HV's but I would like some input from current owners. So now I'm looking at the Canon HF10 and Sony HDR-HC9. I want a rugged camcorder since I use a window sticky-pods mount so it needs to handle bouncy roads. The memory media on the Canon HF10 is very tempting since it don't have to bother with rewind/fast forward but at the same time the Sony is getting high praises for it's rugged build, but it's still using a tape. I know tape is still really good but it's so 80's ehhhh....

Anyways I need some assistance with picking out a good low light quality, storm spotter rugged, great picture quality camcorder at a max $1k.

 

[Tony Laubach]

I've never gone wrong with Sonys... I have purchased three of them since 2002, including the HDR-HC7 model. All three I still use today. Two of them are old D8 (TRV-350) and work like champs. The HDR model I hav also enables me to take 4mp photos while shooting video. I've used it on a couple of occasions and its a convienient thing for stills. Definitely not Nikon DSRL quality, but it works for a quick photo.

The Sony's are rugged and take a lot of abuse. A few glitches here and there with any camera of age, but they still keep on ticking! I know the HDR-HC7 is probably very inexpensive with the newer model 9s out.

Best of luck!

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

I've never gone wrong with Sonys... I have purchased three of them since 2002, including the HDR-HC7 model. All three I still use today. Two of them are old D8 (TRV-350) and work like champs. The HDR model I hav also enables me to take 4mp photos while shooting video. I've used it on a couple of occasions and its a convienient thing for stills. Definitely not Nikon DSRL quality, but it works for a quick photo.

The Sony's are rugged and take a lot of abuse. A few glitches here and there with any camera of age, but they still keep on ticking! I know the HDR-HC7 is probably very inexpensive with the newer model 9s out.

Best of luck!

I'd be interested to see how much better(if at all) the HC7 is over the HC1 I own. The Sony HC1 HDV camera I bought for $1400 in 2006 is hands down the biggest waste of money I've ever spent. Nothing comes close. It looks as good as it gets about in normal street shooting scenes. I don't even mind the thing in the dark of night if I'm in a city and don't let it auto lightness things too bright. Looks fine to me, or close enough. You get a storm with strong backlighting at all though, and it becomes frighteningly bad. It's like it has 3 incriments to describe the shot from light to dark. So you see abrubt funky changes. And not just that, it seems it's only got 3 color values for each lightness change too, sometimes they all look a different color from red to green to blue. I watched my video from near Hoxie, before the storm was there and it's downright depressing what it does with that transition. I'd take a very very old VHS-C output over this...without a second thought. It's actually sad to me Sony produced a camera that does something that horrible. I'm just about to buy a Canon HV20 or HV30, but I'd love to know if they handle things like this too. And nothing tests low light noise like a storm either, so I'm not sold on that aspect yet either till I see footage. I could see someone using mine at night in a city scene with sharp contrast from night to lights and think it does great. Get the thing on a storm though remotely near sunset and it's really noisey, and ugly noise. I can get over all that though compared to the funky green, blue, red chunky transitions in backlit scenes. I need to get a screen cap from the other day and post it to see if the Canon's do this too. I could see it being a single chip HDV thing. If it's not, then it's just a sad job on Sony's part.

 

[Mike Peregrine]

I'm also really anxious to try the HV20 in a storm environment. It's true ... there is nothing like a storm at or just after twilight to test noise. So far I love the stuff I'm getting during the day, but when I shot video inside my home, I noticed the typical noise starting to crop up. I have four video cameras now, and so far the best for low light is still the ancient Sony Digital 8 that I bought eight years ago. Here is just a bit of night shooting with the HV20 in a city environment, but street lights and buildings are nothing like a storm.

 

[Martin Kucera]

Any news on how the new cams or AVCHD cams handle lightning ?

 

[D. Hayes]

Camcorderinfo.com is saying that the AVCHD cameras are really starting to shine this year. They stated that the Canon HF10 looks as good and sometimes sharper than the HV20. I'm not a big fan of built in memory though. Mike that video you have looks fantastic! I really wish I could trust myself enough to take care of that good of a camera. So after days of reading reviews I went ahead and ordered a Sony HDR-SR12 with the 120g drive. Reviews on it are very compelling with with it being described as a "Warrior" & "Tank". It should be here in a few days. I'll post video soon as I get it all figured out.