Hard Drive or SD card camcorder?

[AngeOne]

Good afternoon,

Our trusted Panasonic with mini DV tape format has finally come to an end. I have visited major retail stores and received differing opinions from sales assistants so was just looking for some advice on Hard Drive and SD camcorders.

I was told by one shop assistant that downloading from an SD card has to be done overnight. Any truth in this, ie. say I've just taped my daughter's birthday party, probably about two hours of taping, would that take all night to download to the computer?

Also if I bought a 40GB hard drive camcorder is the quality as good as from the mini DV format. I always record in SP mode so how many hours would a 40GB give me in best quality. I have always been really pleased with the quality from the mini DVs and will happily buy another Mini DV camcorder if opinion says that it is the best quality.

Sorry, seem rather a lot of questions here but would be very grateful for any help.

Thank you.

[redsox_mark]

I was told by one shop assistant that downloading from an SD card has to be done overnight.

That is not correct. Downloading from a SD card is just like copying any files from the card to the PC; the speed will depend on the speed of the card etc, but will be minutes, not hours.

Unless he/she was talking about converting (e.g. from high def AVCHD to standard def), that can take some hours.

Also if I bought a 40GB hard drive camcorder is the quality as good as from the mini DV format. I always record in SP mode so how many hours would a 40GB give me in best quality.

There are standard definition and high definition memory card and HDD cams. With standard def, it's about 4.7 GB/hour, so 8 or 9 hours for 40 GB. With high def (generally AVCHD), it depends on the model and the max bitrate it supports, but generally will be a little over half the time of a standard def cam.

What is best depends on your budget, and your preference and way of working. At £300 or less, you tend to get better quality for your money with miniDV, but the choice of models is dropping; the Panasonic GS330 is a good one. At £350 upwards you can consider high def models (the discontinued Panasonic SD5 has been £350 at Amazon for a while now). With high def there are tape (HDV) and flash memory/HDD cams (AVCHD). There is no clear "better" format, you have to look at individual models.

Do you have a budget in mind?

[AngeOne]

Hi,

Thank you for such a quick and informative answer. The piece about the SD card is very interesting as I have searched the internet and couldn't find any mention of slow loading times with SD cards although my daughter does have a digital SLR 10 megapixel camera and her photographs do take a long time to download to the computer.

I will have a look at some of the models you've mentioned.

We already have a Sony Handycam and the new one will be for my daughter for her 18th so a budget of say £250 to £350 although I would go to £500 if I thought it necessary.

Thank you again for such a quick response. It is appreciated.

[redsox_mark]

It will take some time to copy from a memory card, but it will be faster than "real time". I.e. it takes an hour to copy a 1 hour tape; it will take far less than that to copy from a SD card (or HDD).

At the £500 range you can just about get a Sony TG3 - a small SD card, AVCHD (high def) model. Or for less a Panasonic SD9. For a bit more the Canon HF100. One thing to note is that these high def, AVCHD models need a fast PC to edit and play.

[AngeOne]

Thank you Mark.

I've just looked up the Sony and Panasonic. They both look very nice. Will go out next week and try them out in the stores. The feel and the placement of the zoom lever is also quite important.

Thank you again. Have a good weekend.

Angela