D'oh
I knew that, lol. So yeah, including those...any suggestions?
The JVC GZ-HD7, the first of the JVC HDD cameras is now a little
over a year old, I’ve seen these on line for as little as $800. A really nice
Fujinon lens makes a huge difference and full manual controls is important
. Three 1/5’ 16:9 progressive scan CCD’s are pretty impressive for a camera
in this price range. It has manual controls, a mic input and an excellent
focus ring which is surprisingly rare on small cameras. It records directly
to a built in 60GB hard drive. The issue here is the MPEG-2 compression.
It’s not compatable with many NLE’s.
The GZ-HD6 can record 1080/60p through HDMI - pretty impressive.
The GZ-HD40 is a bit of a disapointment. I like that it records using AVCHD
compression which makes it compatable with most NLE’s but it loses the
important focus ring and it’s so small.
The Panasonic HDC-SD100 uses a 3-CMOS array and records 1920 x 1080
video in the AVCHD format to SD and SDHC memory cards. I like the ring
on the lens that controls zoom, focus, white balance, shutter speed, and
iris and it actually has a viewfinder in addition to the LCD screen. Very
important it has both a mic and headphone jack. I found it difficult to handle
with all the cables attached (mic, headphones and monitor) but it’s a
camera with all the basics.
Close is the Canon HV20. It records in HDV (1080i) and 24p (60i), has a mic
input and manual controls of white balance and focus but it uses one
1/2.7” CMOS sensor rather than 3 CCD’s. And it’s so small the handling is difficult.
The HV30 adds a 30f (Canon’s “frame mode”) in addition to 24p.
The Sony HDR-SR12 has a mic input and a good sized 120GB HDD. It uses
a 1/3” CMOS chip and like the Canon is really small. Because of the input
placement, the mic cable kept getting in my way. The HR9 (which records to
tape) is also a nice, very small, camera with the essentials. Again the mic
input is just below the lens which is rather poor placement, in my opinion.