new Video Camera needed but advice first

Hi Kiwi, all of those things you mentioned are a problem for cameras. It seems to me that as technology is racing forward, the price of these items is generally falling, but so is the lifespan. For instance , a $500 3.1 megapixel camera with 125mb memory card 5 years ago (still working fine), a $400 10megapixel camera with 2gb card 18 months ago (now stuffed) , and an $80 camera with 10megapixels and 2 gb card 1 month ago. Who knows how long the latter will last. Cost to repair the $400 camera- $165. doc.

buy one with memory card only .. no hard drive
they are cheap enough now .. no tape - no problems
there are many brands doing this now ..
good luck
gmd

I would suggest Panosonic over Sony (pathetic warranty service)..Not sure on the JVC....I too was shocked to see the prices (falling) on these new units recently....

Go High Def if you can afford it Kiwi...

Cheers

Kiwi & Grenade
Look for one that will take 16.9 wide screen , better for the PC Monitors and TV's of today, maybe even a HD would be the go,

Full HD 1080p Recording

Canon HG10 High Definition Digital Video Camera

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OK I am/was looking for a similar thing and what I wanted was a compact Camcorder that recorded onto a hard drive or memory stick and I also wanted the camcorder to have a high megapixel rating for still images. I found one and it was a JVC but not all stores stocked the particular model. It was about $1200 and had 30GB hard drive and 8-2 MP still camera. I'll look up the model number.

Ask what is the max size memory card that the camera can handle. My camera is a few years old now and it will not look at any card over 1GB.

Whatever you get, I would look carefully at the file format which it outputs. Both JVC and Panasonic use a .MOD which is almost a proprietary format which not many programs will accept. It's nearly an mpeg but wont retain frame size if you record in 16:9. If you google for issues with .MOD files you will find heaps of comments, problems and issues that people have trying to edit them etc. I also have personal experience with these files and quite frankly, would go for something that records directly in mpeg or even avi.
Cheers
Gerry

Kiwi

We have a JVC GZ HD-7 which is now an older model and I believe has been replaced. We have been extremely happy with ours, the only exception being recording at night (which is always an issue no matter what the camera, even with the pro camera costing 1000's).

We looked at the Sony and after our experience with a SD Sony camera we didnt go there, not to mention having a touch screen on a video camera is a really stupid idea. Just try to get an accurate focus after a day of touching the screen if you are focusing manually.

We went the HD-7 primarily as it gave us full manual control over the camera with these controls being available and easy to get at on the outside of the camera, rather than having to go through countless LCD screens to find what you want.

Feel free to ask any questions and Ill try to answer them for you if you have not already purchased something. OUrs has a 60 gig hard drive and we can get 5 hours at Full HD. I believe that the new ones now have larger hard drives, but the manual features have been hidden back in the camera I believe.

The other reason that the HD-7 appealed to us was that when we bought it, it was the only camera in the sub $2000 range that actually had a real focus ring around the lens for manually focusing. Auto everything is available, but we do like to have control.

I have put a link to one of Tracy's videos on Vimeo. Not sure if it will play as High Definition embeded here, but if it doesnt feel free to go to her page and check it out. Its a music video and not 4 wheel drive related, but it was shot by us, mainly at night and edited in Sony Vegas. Just here to show you the quality you can get. ALso if you look on Ebay for this camera from a company called Hagermeyer, they are the warrenty agents for JVC, and quite often have this model at sub $1000 now, which is a great price, and it still comes with full warranty.

You probably already have it, but I highly recommend the Sony HDR-SR12. If you want to go without the hard drive, and only have flash, go with the HDR-CX12 - same camera in every other way. Amazing images.

I recently bought a Canon FS11. It has 16GB flash memory, and I have a 16GB SD card in it too. The advantage of the flash memory is no moving parts, so it is ideal for bouncing around on bush tracks mounted on the dash.
I didn't bother with HD, I couldn't see the point of chewing up all that extra memory for my rank amateur videos.

Cheers
Glenn