HD Camcorder - any advice

T

ThatMartinChap

Member
I thought that I might get some valuable feedback on here...

Our old tape-based camcorder has finally packed-up and i am looking for a long-overdue HD replacement.

I don't need anything too fancy, it is for occasional use and so not too expensive (5-600 ish)...
was thinking along the lines of Canon HF20

Any recommendations (or otherwise)... ?
 
I have a Sony XR500 which I bought for £550.00 as it was a replaced model. Picture quality is excellent even at 1440 x 1080 (the lowest full HD quality). A friend has the Panasonic SD60 (it's very small) and this also has good pictures (not as good as the Sony but it's a lot cheaper). In general Panasonics get good reviews. If you want a clip from the Sony post and I will put up a link. I might be able to find a SD60 one as well.

Graham
 
Thats interesting - I did look at the Sony XR520 which looks excellent. Very pricey though. Where did you get the XR500 from ?

I'll look at the Panasonics. Thanks for the tip.
 
ThatMartinChap said:
Thats interesting - I did look at the Sony XR520 which looks excellent. Very pricey though. Where did you get the XR500 from ?

I'll look at the Panasonics. Thanks for the tip.
Click to expand...

I bought it in the local Sony shop, just happened to be in their when they reduced the last few in stock. Bit of an impulse purchase but it's very impressive. The still camera capability is also very good, you can focus really close to the lens, which is dead handy for quick macro shots.

http://www.4shared.com/file/UlCGEscH/CamcoderPhotos.html
 
ThatMartinChap said:
Thats interesting - I did look at the Sony XR520 which looks excellent. Very pricey though. Where did you get the XR500 from ?

I'll look at the Panasonics. Thanks for the tip.
Click to expand...

i've panasonic SD9, had for a few years now, video quality good if good lighting conditions and excellent sound (5.1) as long as there is no wind. doesn't take the best photos though.
 
Do you edit footage? If so you may want to consider if your programme can read the files directly or they need transcoding.
A lifetime Canon buyer I've been looking at Panasonic's recently as I think their lowlight performance is better and indoors everything is lowlight.
 
no I want to do minimal editing - nothing really heavy - but that's a complication that I had not thought of..

I've also been thinking about low light performance and actually this is important to me...
 
Our local PC World/Currys megastore has them all laid out switched on and you can pick them up and play to your hearts content. They may be a bit more expensive but that is worth oodles to me.
 
so after much delightful deliberating and a bit of hands-on playing I have narrowed it down to the Panasonic HDC-TM700K.


Also considering the Canon HF-S21 and Sony CX550V, but these seem more expensive options. Will try to track down somewhere that stocks them all so I can compare side by side....
 
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