[daffidhippie]

As the title states, i'm in a quandry!

Got around £350 - 380 to spend, first time buying my own camcorder, really want 3CCD, very attracted by the harddrive as i think it'll save hassle with extra media, but have heard that it loses resolution when it does widescreen (will be viewing it all on a 42" plasma, so decent widescreen is essential) as it chops off the top and bottom of the image to do it, anyone got experience/opinions?

[rhubarbe]

You've been caught up in review land, haven't you? They do talk some twaddle sometimes.

Some cams, predominantly standard def with a widescreen mode, top and tail the image to make a widescreen shape without actually producing a wider image. My Pana SDR-S150 last year did it. So, yes, it does lose vertical resolution but IMHO you'd not notice in the real world.

All HD (Hi def) camcorders are widescreen by default: 1440 x 1080 x 50/60i (depending PAL or NTSC) for HDV cams, or 1980 x 1080i x 50/60i (or 24p for one or two).

AFAIK, there is only one standard definition 3CCD cam with HDD and that is the SDR-H250, a hybrid that also records to SD cards. You can get it for £375.

Oh, there was a JVC: JVC GZ-MG505 but it's expensive.

[daffidhippie]

Originally Posted by rhubarbe

You've been caught up in review land, haven't you? They do talk some twaddle sometimes.

Indeed, and it's been screwing with my head to be honest, as with most things in the internet, the more you look the more confused you get. As i've been on this forum before i thought i'd ask real users as opposed to pro reviewers.

I am looking at the SDR-H250, but wanted to check that if it did chop any of the image it's still going to look good on my plasma, hence was considering the VDR as an alternative, but tbh the convenience of a HHD may just swing it for me anyway.
Do you have a link to the SDR-H250 at the price you stated??

cheers

[rhubarbe]

http://www.bestpricedbrands.co.uk/in...&productId=197
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...ctiveda3024-21


Reasonable review here:

http://www.simplydv.co.uk/Reviews/pa..._sdr-h250.html

Seems a very good camcorder for the price. If it were me I think I'd still go with the SDR-S150 but that's just because I don't want to carry a camcorder in a bag and the SDR-S150 fits my pockets. It has no HDD but these days you can get 8GB SDHC cards for $79 (no VAT) that will work with the SDR-S150 and you can even get a (claimed) 2000mAH battery for it. 'Tis what I would have gone for (despite having sold the one I had last year) if Panasonic hadn't announced the HDC-SD7, curse them.

[daffidhippie]

Cheers, will check the sites out and do a comparison against the S150, may be another option.
Thanks muchly

[rhubarbe]

OK, here's the review of the SDR-S150:

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content...der-Review.htm

You will take it with a pinch of salt though, won't you?

Cheapest place I ever found to buy the SDR-S150 is computeruniverse in Germany.

[daffidhippie]

[QUOTE=rhubarbe;5333598]OK, here's the review of the SDR-S150:

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content...der-Review.htm

You will take it with a pinch of salt though, won't you?

QUOTE]

On your sage advice i will.

Thanks again for the pointers, need to discuss with the wife if she would find one better over the other. The camcorder is really to be used for recording the early adventures of our new baby, so she will be doing most of the filming, me the editing.

Any advice on editing software? i was going to go for Pinnacle as i've had some experience of this in the past.

[rhubarbe]

Well, if you are going to use a HDD cam, or one that takes SD cards, the clips will be sequential and each clip will be a separate .MOD file. You can download Sektionschef's utility to batch convert to .mpg and set widescreen flags; I'll send you a link. In fact if you PM me an email address I can email you the file.

I found that I didn't bother editing the mpg files, I just played the ones I wanted to play and didn't play the ones I didn't like.

How do you intend to display the files on your plasma, BTW?

[daffidhippie]

I will look to either burn to DVD's or i was thinking of setting up a small PC to play games on, could use this for displaying/editing as well. I haven't looked into of i can play direct to the plasma via my amp yet.

Will PM you my email for that link.

[rhubarbe]

Ah yes, it's Standard Def. Yes, DVDs should be fine but do bear in mind that they don't last as long as most people hope. Couple of years and you may find they don't play any more, so do keep the master files.

Of course, this is why I have moved to tape for HD.