As of now... digital camocorders are....

[Frank@UK]

Help! I am looking to upgrade my Sony TRV78E fairly big/heavy annalogue camcorder for a one thats smaller, lighter, captures still picture (capable of printing out OK at normal photo size), HD ready if I wish to capture in HD.

Now... thing is... I feel that the cams of today are just at that transitional stage . Everyone seems to moan on about noise, artifacts, smearing, halo effects, grainy low light, poor still image to name but a few.
After capturing video we want to view/share it and heres where more moaning is found... AVCHD etc. compatibility, PC needs viagra (knocking on a bit and not UP to the job), huge files, 720p 1080i p Full HD this, that, other, Megapixels, Resolution..... HEEEELP!

So... what I would like is someone to explain where we are with these new smaller very tempting digital camcorders. I personally would like to upgrade but just don't know how! Picture quality is important to me, HD great, but not if it means another few hundred pounds on a new PC aswell. Afterall that if I go to view my videos and they are grainy noisy ghosting messes I'd be miffed.

PS. I recently got Sanyo Xacti Ca-8 thinking it would be OK and fun due to waterproof and Sanyo website saying it was DVD like quality which is utter tosh! I was fooled by things like 8 Megaipxels etc. and quickly leaned it came down to other things i.e its poor 640x480 resolution. Once bitten twice shy. I give up.... please someone enlighten me/us.

[redsox_mark]

Technology is always in transition, and you will always find people moaning. There are many excellent camcorders available now, and I don't see any big change coming soon (which makes the transition over and stops the moaning).

As you have learned, for video the "Megapixels" doesn't matter, as long as there are enough to support the video resolution. The extra pixels help with stills only.

High Def cams do need a more powerful PC to play or edit; though there are ways around that; you can convert to intermediate or alternate formats which are easier to edit. Of the 2 major High Def formats, AVCHD is more PC intensive than HDV (tape). The other challange with High Def is how to play your edited videos (making AVCHD discs or Blu-ray discs, using a media player etc). All of this is solvable but takes a bit of work to learn.

Some excellent models:

AVCHD: Sony SR11/SR12, SR10. Canon HF10/HF100. Panasonic SD9/SD5. Sony TG3.

HDV: Canon HV30, Sony HC9.

Do you have a budget in mind? All of the above are small compared to your old camcorder; the smallest is the TG3, followed by the SD9.

[Frank@UK]

Thanks for the reply and info. I just got myself lost in all the terminology and vast array of cams out there. You have picked out a few that I (in my trawling for info) did look at, but you check specs on one and forget the other. But yes I certainly been interested in Panny SD9 and Canon HF100 (or was it HG10 ) Sony SR10/TG3 not liking their memory stick prices. I am now more confident about going to AVCHD so thanks for that.
As for budget. Well if my wife finds out but really 500ish pounds maybe, so its looking like Panny SD9, Sony TG3/SR10, Canon HF100.
Got to weigh up still taking capabilities too.
I read somewhere that "Image processor CMOS doesn't appear to handle moving images as well as 3CCD" any truth in that?
PS. If I have recorded onto say an 8Gb SDHC memory card and its getting full. Can I just copy that 8Gb data onto my PC without uncompressing it or whatever (leaving it 8Gb ish size) and leave that job till later? This would enable me to delete from SDHC and reuse it quickly etc.

[redsox_mark]

Originally Posted by Frank@UK

I read somewhere that "Image processor CMOS doesn't appear to handle moving images as well as 3CCD" any truth in that?

There was a recent, somewhat unpleasent discussion about CMOS vs CCD recently in this forum.

CMOS camcorders use a rolling shutter, which has some issues which are described here:
http://dvxuser.com/jason/CMOS-CCD/

Some experts will say this is a major issue, and CMOS camcorders should be avoided. My experience is these issues are hard to spot, and also most of the consumer camcorders (and the best performing ones) are CMOS. There are also pro CMOS camcorders costing many thousands of pounds.

[redsox_mark]

Originally Posted by Frank@UK

PS. If I have recorded onto say an 8Gb SDHC memory card and its getting full. Can I just copy that 8Gb data onto my PC without uncompressing it or whatever (leaving it 8Gb ish size) and leave that job till later? This would enable me to delete from SDHC and reuse it quickly etc.

Yes

[rhubarbe]

Originally Posted by redsox_mark

Some experts will say this is a major issue

[senu]

Originally Posted by redsox_mark

There was a recent, somewhat unpleasent discussion about CMOS vs CCD recently in this forum.

Is that what it was ?.. . Hard to avoid when opinionated people ( no matter how knowledgeable) need to have thier say

Some experts will say this is a major issue, and CMOS camcorders should be avoided

Yeah.. Hmm..right

. My experience is these issues are hard to spot, and also most of the consumer camcorders (and the best performing ones) are CMOS. There are also pro CMOS camcorders costing many thousands of pounds.

This was raised in the said discussion and it was implied that manufacturers May have been determined to carry on with the CMOS cost saving exercise even for Pro kit
I think the truth is more about taking a less rigid stand on technology and looking at the advantages and disadvantages of both technologies and ultimately the output ( for what you need to do with it)
I have examples of CMOS and 3CCD and am by no means an expert: They all perfom well enough to justify thier purchase IMHO