I have been watching the camcorder scene for the past year and a half again because it was time to free myself from tapes. Eventually I settled for Sony HDR-SR7, which has a CMOS sensor (not best for dark situations, you need Sony PD170 for dark shooting :).
Sony just came out with a newer 160GB version, which is SR12, but squeezed the sensor, despite upping the HD video from 1440X1080i to 1920X1080i. So the SR7th sensor is still better than the SR12th, even though the hard drive is only 60GB. The beauty of SR7 is that it shoots in both standard MPEG2 9mbps and AVCHD 15mbps. So if you shoot for the web only, I think this is the ideal approach, since the MPEG2, although not an editing format, is very economical and you can simply backup the footage to DVD. Although I haven't burned any MPEG2 footage to a DVD to test I hope it will allow the footage to be playable in any DVD player without transcoding before hand. Another neat feature besides being able to delete unwanted video right in the cam is splitting the video right in the cam. So, say you have some parts in a clip that you want gone, you can on the go split and delete parts. Also it has mini audio port so you can plug practically any mike via mini to XLR cable. I am yet to shoot in AVCHD, when the software world wakes up and smells the flowers. Till this day most of the professional NLE applications do not support this format. I edit my MPEG2 footage in Premiere CS3, it doesn't support MPEG2 editing (as I mentioned above that this format isn't an editing one) so I found a workaround to this after weeks of research. All Premiere needs is a Dolby file from Encore CS3 to be imported into the Premiere install directory. Otherwise the video plays in the timeline but no audio. For now my rig is a combination of SR7 with extended battery (5 hours?), with semi-fisheye lens Raynox HD-3032PRO (not for all occasions of course), and all sitting on a Merlin Steadicam you get pretty nice moving pictures. I hope the above helps Renat from MrThyself.com --- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, "pettisb" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hey Gang, > > I'm in the market for a new video camera. > > My Sony HC1 died a while back from overuse and I've been using my > xacti hd2 with a wide angle lense and simple shotgun mic setup. I > really prefer the hd2's 720p to 1080i. If I could send interlacing to > hell, I would do it in a second. > > So I'm looking for a more beefy camera than the wee xacti to look a > little more impressive and get better color and sound. > > Has to be 720p or 1080p. > Has to record to hard drive or cards. I hate tapes. > I'd like it to have 3 ccds but not essential. > Low light awesomeness would be nice. > Has to accept wide angle lens attachment. > Has to be decent at recording audio. > > Anyone go to CES and see anything I should keep an eye out for? > Anyone have a favorite camera that they are loving right now? > > Bre > http://brepettis.com >
