What Camera For My Walk Across America?

[mikewalks]

I will be walking across America to produce a Documentary of the full journey.

After lots of searching I have decided to buy two more Canon HV40's for the walk. It is a perfect size and I want to stick to the HDV format so I can easily store the tapes. The walk will be 10 months and I don't want to be carrying a bunch of HD's to store footage.

I will also be taking:

-Rode SVM Microphone
-Canon WD-H43 0.7x Wide Angle Converter for HV Camcorders
-Manfrotto 190XDB with 701HDV Video Tripod System
-Panasonic HDV Tapes
-Extra Batteries and chargers

And For photo I will be using 2 Canon g12's. One for the other walker and one for me. Most of the gear will be on a custom made push cart in a airtight waterproof case.

I am also considering taking a Gopro HD Hero to get some interesting shots.

When I am away form a power source I will be using a Goal0 solar panel.

My question is:

Do you know of better camera system for a project like this? I already have 1 hv40 and I love it. I would like to stay away from lager systems like the XH A1.

 

[mikewalks]

To be clear the HFS100 doesn't have a hard drive, or any internal memory. All the footage is on little AVHCD SD cards the size of quarter. Changing card is even easier than changing tapes!

Thanks I will look into it. Cards are much more expensive then tapes, I can get great panasonic hdv tapes for under $7...

 

[wheatgrinder]

sure, but byte for byte I dont know.. I don't know how much TIME \ Quality you get on an HV40 per tape etc.. Also, a DV tape should be used just a couple times for best quality, but a SD card, 100 of rewrites at least...

Im not agruing by the way.. just listing pros..

You can carry about a months worth of SD cards in the same space\weight as ONE Hours worth of tape.

You can copy\download data without using the camera.

You can walk into just about any internet cafe public library and find a card reader, upload your files\footage to your home server.

Fewer moving parts to break down\get dirty

con. So small they are easy to lose.