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General discussion

Final Question to get HD outta my way

by shahrokhan Nov 4, 2006 8:52PM PST

Ok Now I know some of you might get irritated by how many HD HD HD questions I ask but please bear with me.

I want ask that are the current consumer HD cams better than any SD cam out there?
Lets take the Canon HV 10 and Sony HDR-HC3 and lets assume that theres no HD in them. Then we compare these to any SD camcorder out there for consumers and under $1500.
Is it true that the HV10 and HC3 will have unparalleled image quality compared to other cams. Remember we are comparing SD video with HD down converted to SD.

Discussion is locked

7 Posts
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Good question....
by whizkid454 Nov 4, 2006 10:18PM PST

But this is usually the case. An HD camcorder usually has a better "optical device"(lens) than a non-HD camcorder because the HD camcorder needs the better lens to produce better quality. In this case, downconverted HD is usually(USUALLY!!) a little better than recorded SD. Also remember that when you change a video file after it has been recorded to a different format or quality, it sometimes loses some quality during the change. So, look at the lenses of the two you are trying to compare and ask the question to someone who knows the answer(not me..)"Which is a better quality lens?" I have heard that Sony lenses are pretty good.

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Right lets w8 for boya
by shahrokhan Nov 5, 2006 12:52AM PST

yup i am waiting for boya84 to answer. he normally does all.
if you find him in another discussion plz link him to this. ty

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Whizkid454 is correct...
by boya84 Nov 5, 2006 1:07AM PST

Capturing HD video requires good lenses to capture the 4x more information that HD (1080i) video does... so using the HD camcorder in SD mode will capture SD video... very good SD video... but still SD video.

I would suggest capturing HD video - and when you burn the DVD, it will get down sampled to SD anyway - this leaves you with the HD source so if you decide to re-do the burn to HD DVD (when those drives become available) you can... or if you export the edited HD video back to the HD camera, you can playback using the camera playing HD - with the camera connected to the HDTV.

You did not need my response on this one...

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(NT) (NT) No trust in me!!!!! lol jk
by whizkid454 Nov 5, 2006 1:35AM PST
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HD on hard drive or DV tapes?
by dano_from_colorado Nov 5, 2006 10:10PM PST

I read a lot here how people do not trust the hard drives on the videos cameras. I was looking into the sony HDR-SR1 but I am starting to 2nd guess that option. I do a lot of editing on my iMac and some say that it is very compressed on the hard drive which makes it harded to edit. Am I getting that right?
So if I am always going to edit and made my movies that way should I be looking at the Sony HDR-HC3 or Canons HV10?
Thanks

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yup hc3 or hv10 r better
by shahrokhan Nov 6, 2006 12:41AM PST

i would go for the hc3 if it was for indoor but hv10 if it is for outdoor. they have very little difference. some of them r:
sony has hdmi port
canon has instant auto focus which is very very quick
sony has super night shot for very low light onditions
canon has optical image stabilizer which is better than sonys electronic image stabilizer. image stabilizing is for shaky hands.

there are many pros and cons.

go to camcorderinfo.com and check out the HC3 and HV10 reviews and either one of them will have a comparison at the bottom of the page.

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The biggest issues I see with the hard drive based
by boya84 Nov 6, 2006 6:39AM PST

HD camcorders from Sony - in my opinion - are:

1) AVCHD: In order to fit the amount of HiDef video on the hard drive in that camera, they need to compress it a LOT. Sony uses a new compression method called AVCHD (check it out on wikipedia). Currently, there is NO code available for any of the major video editors - not even Sony has an AVCHD CODEC in their Windows-based Vegas editor. Sony's web site indicated it will be available in the Spring, 2007.

http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/products/product.asp?PID=404&PageID=40

That means I need to transfer the video to a hard drive to store it until the codec is made available so I can edit... in six months. Yuck.

2) I trust hard drives in camcorders about as much as I trust hard drives in computers. Electromechanical devices (i.e., hard drives) will fail. When it fails, all the video on that drive (if I have not already transfered to another drive) goes away (or an expensive visit to a data recovery service is in order). With mini-DV tape, I have an "automatic" archive by locking the tape when I am done shooting. If the camera dies, I get another camera and pop the tape in.

The Sony HDR-HC3 and Canon HV10 are fine cameras. If your budget can handle it, take a look at the Sony HVR-A1. It is a modified, "professional" version of the Sony HDR-HC1 which I was fortunate enough to get last year well before it was discontinued. If you don't need the XLR adapter and mic, maybe there is an "unbundled" A1 out there (for less $) - I have not looked...

(kfoulk, I know this is a little repeat for you, but I wanted to close on this part of the discussion here at CNET.)

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