Camcorders

[K Johnson]

I really want to get a camcorder for this years chase season, and after reading all the posts about them on here, I settled on the HV20 (yet to purchase). I've never even held a camcorder before, and don't want to get a big hefty pro model, but I do want excellant picture quality and colours.

Recently there have been headlines about how blue ray are winning the the BR / HD competition... how does this affect the plethora of HV20 owners? Will this cause problems? Would I better off avoiding an HD camcorder if blue ray is winning, or will it not make any difference to home grown movies? I don't really understand the difference between them, so apologies if this is a totally stupid question.

 

[Keith Mullen]

I have no answers - but am asking myself the same questions...

 

[K Johnson]

I have no answers - but am asking myself the same questions...

Hi Keith

Dennis Sherrod pm'd me as he doesn't have access to reply on this board - he asked the same question in the equipment board - check out http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=15402

Hopefully its looking like we should be ok for a while!

Kirstie

 

[Keith Mullen]

Thanks! How are things in Yorkshire these days?

 

[K Johnson]

Thanks! How are things in Yorkshire these days?

Alternating between cold, grey and rainy, to really cold, grey and icey! Not enough storms for my liking. Well, no storms at all to be exact *groan*. A temperature inversion with some dense freezing fog was about as interesting as it gets round here! You know Yorkshire?

 

[Chris C Sanner]

The Blu-Ray/HD-DVD war has nothing to do with what most camcorders film. An HV20 would work with either Blu Ray or HD-DVD projects, the question you need to be asking yourself is do you want to do HD or SD DVDs and then if you think your computer can handle it, I would look for a software package that can edit in HD and then burn to Blu-Ray. Honestly, I wouldn't expect making Blu-Ray discs to become too common for another year or two, so it's really a moot point. Camera choice won't hurt your ability to do either

 

[Keith Mullen]

I assume the HV20 has the capabilities of both recording HD and or SD, rather than an after the fact convert?

Forgive my ignorance.

 

[Chris C Sanner]

Yes it does Keith, but getting an HD camcorder to record in SD is kind of a waste of money

You'd be better of recording in HD and converting it SD as it is imported, that way you can always redo your DVDs to HD at some point.

 

[Wayne Hlinicky]

I use a Panasonic SVHS AG-460 Reporter series, on the dash is a JVC SVHSC GR-SMX260U. Both cameras take great video. Also I carry a DXG mini camera using a 1 gig SD card. This camera is fun to use and you can carry it anywhere. It is no bigger than a pack of smokes. For a film camera I use a Canon T50 w/Cannon 200 meter zoom lense it also has auto film advance.