Hi to you all,
I recently uploaded a post about a brand new Sony DCR-HC42E which recorded the noise made by the tape mechanism. Today I spent the day in and out of retail shops in Tottenham court road and was faced with different opinions from the men behind the counters some of whom I would not have bought a used car from. A general statement I heard from more than one in different shops was that the tape mechanism on all commercial camcorders produces noise which will be captured in recordings and will be more noticable when the recording is produced quiet environments.

My question to you all as camcorder owners is: when you are recording with your camcorder, do you notice a buzz, whine or noise coming from the internals of your camcorder and if so is this noise captured in your recordings? If the answer is yes to both these questions then it would be useful to me to know what camcorder you have and to what extent is this noise distracting?

Were the men behind the counter being truthful or were they trying to erase my well founded fears in order to bag some commision.

I await your answers avidly.

Regards

Raymond

The short answer i would say is Yes. I have heard the sound of the head on many DV cameras. But i think there is a level which is unacceptable. however i think with most you should hear very little or not at all.

[GaryB]

The heads in a DV camera spin at 9000RPM and there are four heads on the drum. It's just not possible for that to happen and be silent..

[Nick_UK]

Most whine or buzz or whirr. My little Sony PC6E whirrs rather less than the Panasonic VHS-C camera that it replaced, but it's still there. If it's a problem for you, consider using an external microphone. Most camcorders have sockets for external microphones.

[MartinImber]

I even needed an external microphone with a SOny HVC4000P

which one would win?

My requirements in order of importance are as follows:

1) Good quality pictures
2) Good sound quality (a minimum of motor noise which has little effect on recordings)
3) Reliability

My options due to budget and a number of other reasons have narrowed to these two babies from which I must choose by the end of this week. I am on holiday on Friday. All comments are welcome even if you know the qualities of only one of these camcorders.

Let the games begin

[MartinImber]

Originally Posted by sebuwufur

which one would win?

My requirements in order of importance are as follows:

1) Good quality pictures
2) Good sound quality (a minimum of motor noise which has little effect on recordings)
3) Reliability

My options due to budget and a number of other reasons have narrowed to these two babies from which I must choose by the end of this week. I am on holiday on Friday. All comments are welcome even if you know the qualities of only one of these camcorders.

Let the games begin

The Sony - Sony do 2 things very very well - better than most, CRT TVs and video cameras

[MarkE19]

Originally Posted by MartinImber

The Sony - Sony do 2 things very very well - better than most, CRT TVs and video cameras

Until a couple of years ago I always bought Sony TV's, but now I think the Panasonics are as good if not better, and cheaper as well (well they were last time I looked!). It is much the same with the budget camcorders as Panasonic tend to use larger CCD's that give better performance in low light.
In the past couple of months I have read a fair few posts on this forum about poor quality of JVC camcorders, so would avoid them. They do however offer loads of features for a cheap price.

Mark.