Help Needed Buying New Camcorder

[dalkaty]

Hi,

I am looking to upgrade my old JVC DV3ek,

I’ve been looking at the Sony DCR-SR90E I can get it from work (staff sales) for £682

I have read most posts on this forum, and I have just read this post by Redsox Mark (makes sense keeping old tapes as back up) but I am still baffled as what to get, I can’t find any posts on this particular Camcorder,

Is this a good camcorder, or would you stick to tape, I am willing to spend up to £700 so any recommendation on what to buy would be much appreciated.
Regards,
Dave (newbie)

[senu]

Panasonic GS 300.. Hunt for a bargain and keep the change over your £700 If you want to stick to tape

Other than that,there quite a few advantages in having a HDD camcorder.
You get Good to Very good PQ:Comparable PQ from similarly costing MiniDV camcorder will obviously be better but possibly similar by the time it gets down to DVD
No tapes
It is mpeg2 : editable ( with the right software) and no PC transfer issues ( Just drag/ drop)
If no editing desired, mpeg2 files are ( usually) DVD ready ( with appropriate DVD authoring software on the PC)... or
You can record via s-video to settop DVD recorder to immediately make DVD backup
If you go on holiday, just go with a laptop with ample HDD space: shoot, download to laptop, wipe old footage off camcorder HDD and carry on shooting!
I must say the convenience ( and relatively good PQ) of a HDD camcorder wins me over but the old fashioned " tape is best" idea still runs deep
HTH

[redsox_mark]

The SR90 is a nice camcorder. See this review of the US model SR100 (only difference is the SR100 has AV-in)
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content...der-Review.htm

The SR90 will give you picture quality on a par with the GS300.. or a HC3 in SD mode. A HC3 in HD mode will be better though.

HDD does have advantages, and I'm sure it is the future. It's just that IF you want to archive all your footage then some of that advantage is offset. Take an example: I shot hours of footage of my children when they were very young (still shooting them alot at ages 12 and 10). Every 6 months or so I'd take several hours of footage and edit into a hour or so long "film". But I kept all those original tapes... and since have gone back and pulled out some nice "never seen before" footage. I want to keep those tapes.

If had a baby today and shot say 4 hours on HDD and edit down to 1 hour, what do I do with the original material? Delete it? Or archive it to DVD as well (which would take some time and effort, and also may not be as reliable long term as tape).

And yes you can take your laptop on holiday, but not everyone wants to do this (or has a laptop).

[senu]

Mark ,
.(or maybe not...) My subtle hint on my preference for tape was obviously... very subtle despite praise for HDD!

1) My "experience" ( more like exposure.... ) with an HDD camcorder was a short loan of a JVC Everio: In general if one transfers (DV) MiniDV ( even HD downconverted) footage to HDD of settop recorder how does PQ ( in your opinion) compare to the "native" footage of HDD camcorders? { assuming this is a Good brand settop with decent mpeg hardware encoder}


2) Given the age of your children ( as stated: my first is only 9) I imagine your initial tapes of them were were Hi-8 etc: How do they compare to digital ( D8 ,miniDV) or DVDs as archived footage
Perhaps there are only subjective answers but I would be keen on knowing your thoughts on these

[redsox_mark]

Senu,

For question 1) - my experience is similar to yours; just had a brief play with a JVC one. The bottom of the range JVC ones (which this was) are only OK for quality.. it's not that is MPEG2 or HDD per se, it's the overall quality, the lens, etc. If you take DV on to a settop HDD recorder, then of course it also depends on the quality of that recorder... but I've found with my Toshiba HDD/DVD recorder at high bitrate the result is indistingushible from the original DV. So for example output from my HC1 put on to the HDD recorder looks better than what I got from a JVC HDD cam.

If you use something like the SR90 (which I haven't used, but by all reports gives quality similar to a good DV cam like the GS300 or HC96), than that is different.

2) My original baby footage was Video8 (not even hi8). When I went DV (in 2000) I converted all my old tapes to DV. The quality of this footage isn't as good as DV, but it is still of course precious.

[dalkaty]

I have taken your advice Senu, just ordered one from Dixons for £448.83 free p/p - £13.44 = £435.39 going through quidco.com I can't wait for it to arrive, going on holiday in six weeks, will have to get some practise in using it. thanks again for the info
Dave