Condensation warning on Sony HC-3, need a 'corder that doesn't!

[PDP-434HDE]

OK, yesterday, went for a munro bag up Bein Narnain in the Arrochar Alps, Scotland.

Just before we hit the mist, my trusty Sony HC-3 decided that due to the humid atmosphere that it would flash "Condensation warning. Switch off for 1hr" at me and ejected the tape. Now, this turnued out to be a big deal as the mechanism wanted to be left open in order to breathe. And I neded to scramble over rocks - not a good mixture.

Kind of ruined my day really. As I plan to hit a lot more munros, I need a camcorder that is not going to give me that grief and is High Def.

Any recomendations?

My edited video is here BTW, you will see the grief that the camcorder gave me even when it started working again!

[bsuttie]

Have you thought of going tapeless? I just bought a Canon HF 100 after a lot of anguish about whether to stick with tape or not.

I have to say I'm totally sold on the idea of no moving parts in the camera to go wrong. Silent in operation (until you zoom). Up to six hours recording on a couple of tiny cards. And they can only go up in size!

HDMI out of the camera for instant playback. Burn to DVD or BD for archive / viewing on blu ray player.

You do need a decent computer to edit directly or be prepared to convert to a more appropriate format for editing.

But certainly worth considering

regards

Brian

[PDP-434HDE]

I think its going to be tapeless. This will be to augment my HC-3 which I'll still use for weddings etc where the weather ain't a factor.

[akkers]

I had tape cams from VHS to Hi8 to DV and they gave me grief with condensation. The VHS one was particularly fussy in autumn/winter. If I took the cam from outdoors to indoors or into a car then the condenstaion warning used to come on and I could not use the cam for around 1 hr. I once missed an important event waiting for the cam to come back to life. Then I started to transport the cam in a sealed polythene bag or turn up at the location one hr earlier to let the cam aclimatise. This happened less with the Hi8 and with DV it was rare.

Not noticed this phenomenon with the current HF100 tapeless cam.

[senu]

It happens with digital still DSLRs though. Ive had it several times taking a camera into a warm house from a cold car boot..
Although it doesnt relate to any sort of tape mechansm, the lens can become all misty inside and make picture taking impossible