[Linda1111]

I am looking at buying either a Sony HDR SR12E or HDR CX11E, I live on a farm and would like a fairly robust camcorder and wondered which is more reliable - memory stick or Hard drive. Shops seem to give conflicting advice depending on what they have in stock!! Also do you need to buy Sony memory stick or does cheaper equivalent work just as well

[A n d r e w]

They're both reliable. The SR11/SR12 takes a similar harddrive to that found in iPods so there's no reason to expect it to be any more accident-prone than an iPod harddrive basically.

No camcorder responds well to really rough handling, though.

Andrew.

[Orwella]

Being an SR12E owner, plus a frequent user of Canon's HF100, my next camcorder will be card based. I like the capacity of current HDD's, but memory cards will always get bigger and cheaper. Also, I can hear hard disk noise (slightly) on my SR12 when playing back recordings.

Saying that, the SR12 is more comfortable to hold for people with large hands than the Canon or CX11. The HDD enclosure certainly helps in pthis respect.

Oh, and if I went for card I would not get a Sony. They take the p*** when it comes to memory card pricing.

I love my SR12, but it is no better than the much cheaper HF100 for picture quality (which is the most important reason for buying a camcorder). Sure the SR12 offers night-vision (pointless gimmick), face detection (another gimmick), a better (great) LCD and a viewfinder (which I never use).