HD (1080i) home movies

Have you got a shiny new HDTV system? And a DV video camera - perhaps to capture pictures of the kids, and the occasional holiday?

Plug them together and prepare for a disappointment. DV may have looked spiffy compared with earlier video cameras, but now look blurry and crap compared with even a regular TV image on your new HDTV screen.

Technology is moving fast in the HD world (only recently has Blu Ray emerged from the HD DVD wars) so I did a fair bit of research before choosing an HD video camera.

There are (of course) 2 standards: HDV and AVCHD. Of the 2, AVCHD is the newer format, but needs to be compressed in-camera more than HDV, and hence has current quality issues.

Storage-wise, theres Tape, Solid-state and HDD. Tape is the falling standard, as manufacurers save costs by opting for electronic storage. Mini-DV tapes will be available for a long time to come, as most budget cameras use them. The Sony Cam takes a MemoryStick to store stills.

Given all this, I opted for the HDV Tape-based Sony HDR-HC7 camera, and Im extremely glad I did so. Heres a review and specs

Sony have released the HDR-HC9, the next AVCHD-based model, so the HC7 can be bought at a very reasonable price (I got mine direct from Japan for around 500GBP)

I cannot enthuse enough about this videocam. Flawless performance under all the difficult conditions I can throw at it. Its a decent 6.1MPx still camera too. Needless to say, my videos now look like broadcast quality - even on a normal TV.

The HC7 is superbly designed, with all the many features both genuinely useful and well implemented. Minimal physical buttons, with the touch-screen LCD menus easy and customisable. I hate equipment with a million buttons and dials (like my old videocam!) I hate equipment loaded with functions that no mortal would ever use. I like good design and functions that are well thought-out.

For editing; I have always favoured Pinnacle Studio over Adobe Premiere since Premiere became bloatware, around version 5 onwards.

Pinnacle Studio 11 (currently available in Ultimate edition via your try-and-buy Bittorrent store) supports full HD editing and is simply wonderful. You can use it in stupid mode, where you capture your video and simply tell it to make a finished SmartMovie with a couple of clicks, or you can spend time with its hundreds of effects and options to make your masterpeice.

The combination of camera and software makes a powerful and high-quality affordable HD movie system , and I would recommend it without question.

This post has been edited by torrenter: Mar 11 2008, 10:32 AM

Yeah you really need to do some research when buying a HD camcorder because the quality differences can really be dramatic. People think that because its HD that its going to be amazing quality and that just isn't the case. I actually had such a terrible time finding one that gave me the really high quality I was looking for that I ended up jumping out of the consumer category altogether and into the prosumer category. I ended up getting the Canon XH H1. Sure it was about 3 times what I originally wanted to pay but being a professional photographer I am all to used to paying high prices for high quality and again I was so frustrated by my experiences with the consumer models I purchased that I really just said screw it. I tried 4 different high end consumer models and none of them gave me the quality I was looking for and I ultimately came to the conclusion that it was the quality of the lenses that I was having the real issue with and to get the high quality lenses you really have to jump out of he consumer level altogether. The XH G1 uses Canon L certified lenses and additionally I picked up the new Canon 6x Zoom XL 3.4-20.4mm L lens with the camera.

I have now had it for close to 6 weeks and the quality is outstanding. Everything I have come to expect from Canon L series lenses. We just purchased the 60" Pioneer Kuro PDP-6010FD and it has IMO the best picture quality i have ever seen in a TV screen before and when me and my family finally loaded up one of the tapes I shot of our week long trip out to California and Oregon we all just sat there absolutely dumbfounded by the quality. It was literally beyond anything I expected and I have a pretty high standard for quality as I shoot nothing but 4x5 and 8x10 large format with my still photography. I cant wait to get my Final Cut Pro installed so I can do some editing and use some of the filters with this camera.

The bottom line is if your looking to buy a new HD camcorder then you should really make sure you buy it from a store that will let you return it if your unsatisfied and you should really do a lot of research into the different models available because believe it or not, as the OP has stated, there can be a significant difference in quality even when your looking at camera's in the same price range. Just because it has HD on it does not in any way mean that its going to have a satisfactory image quality of course that really depends on what your looking for and ultimately what you consider to be high quality. High quality for someone like me that works with super high quality images for a living is probably going to be very different from what a lot of other people consider high quality. In the end just do some research and you should be all right.

As a final thought I will say that if your looking for a really high quality HD camcorder and you have some cash to burn then you should absolutely think abut getting out of the consumer category altogether. As I stated above the problem with that category is not the sensors or the camera's but the quality of the lenses. The quality of the lens makes all the difference in the world for picture quality and the bottom line is high quality glass is expensive and that is why the consumer models don't have high quality lenses. You have to jump up to the prosumer level to get that really nice glass like Canon L certified lenses.

hi all
i want buy panasonic camera. What is your recommendation model?
Thank you.

Top-notch post it is without doubt. My girlfriend has been looking for this information.

But both of the above posts are a couple of years old.