Help me choose a Camcorder - Toshiba Gigashot A100 HD vs Panasonic HDC-SD9EB-S HD

[thedo]

Looking to buy a relatively cheap HD camcorder soon for my upcoming wedding - something for the brother-in-law-to-be to use to help capture the day.

Been looking at these

Toshiba Gigashot A100 HD Camcorder
or
Panasonic HDC-SD9EB-S HD Camcorder

Toshiba is priced around £300 and has a 100GB Hard Drive, the Panasonic is around £370 and takes SDHC cards. The Panasonic seems to have the better reviews, but I'm not entirely convinced that at this price point I'm going to be *that* impressed. I'm no David Attenborough, nor is the B-I-L-T-B, so ease of use is probably a higher concern (doesn't matter if its the greatest camera in the world if he cant use it!).

In my mind the Tosh's 100GB drive is a bonus (plus the lower price), but it "only" does 1080i from what I can gather. The Panny does 1080p and has better reviews, but I'm not sold on having a dozen SD cards to manage on the day!

So I guess the question is is it worth getting either of these? If so, which would you be more likely to go for? Or would you get a better quality Standard Def Camera for a similar price, or pony up an extra hundred to get a better HD camcorder. Budgets are tight as we're already spending a small fortune!

Never owned *any* camcorder before so this feels like a significant purchase!

Thanks for any advice.

[A n d r e w]

Is the wedding ceremony to be held indoors or outdoors? What about the reception? I bet it's safe to assume the answer is "indoors," in which case neither of your alternatives is going to produce brilliant quality video, especially in the hands of the inexperienced.

The Canon HF100 has a larger sensor, and therefore will be marginally better for shooting indoors (with emphasis on "marginally") but it's also a bit dearer. If you don't mind changing a tape every hour, the Canon HV30 will do a slightly better job again. Putting any of these on a tripod will also help.

But if all you're after is average quality vox pops, then the Panasonic (possibly even the Toshiba, though I'm not familiar with it) will do the job. So long as you expect the focus to wander and the picture to be dull and grainy unless your venue is floodlit, then you'll not be disappointed.

Andrew.

[thedo]

In your opinion then would we be better spending the same but getting a standard def camera - would we expect clearer results in poorer light? We've got about 4 months to go to familiarise ourselves with the camera, so the vids wont come out *too* bad! Hopefully........

Thanks for your reply so far!

N

[WarPig843]

Ive got the Pany SD9 and its extremely easy to use. Ive mainly just used the 'Automatic' setting straight out of the box, which gives fantastic picture quality recordings when outside in decent daylight. Though getting to grips with 'Manual' settings is supposed to be recommended. Its 'image stabalising' function works a treat & it has face recognition also.

Not done any indoors recording yet but folk say the picture quality degrades.
Perhaps this appears more noticable because the outdoor recordings are so good? And perhaps the indoor picture quality is no worse than a SD camcorder at its best?

One thing for sure, you will certainly need additional batteries and the Panasonic battery is quite expensive at the moment. Even so, your B-I-L-T-B will need to keep on top of charging the batteries throughout the day as they may only last for one hours recording.

And yes, you will need a suply of SD cards. I use 8GB SDHC cards which give about one hours recording. The best price Ive found is about £11 each. I assume a 16Gb card will last double that. This is based on the highest picture quality setting. After all, if you've invested in a high-def camcorder, why choose a less than perfect picture setting?

Oh, and buy a tripod! And read the Canon HF100 thread also, supposed to be a great unit.

[thedo]

Thanks - good to hear from a (pretty) happy owner. Will have a look through that thread, although it is pretty long!

Thanks again

N