[Moya]

Have been trying to decided between Canon HF10 and Sony HDR SR10E. Any thoughts on pros and cons of these models and memory card and hard drive formats? Bit concerned that seems you need Blu-Ray to view for the Sony... Any advice welcome. Thanks

[RenaultSport]

Look here:

HD Camcorder

No, you dont need a bluray player for the Sony as it records to an internal hard drive - however you will need a fairly powerful machine for either of these cams should you wish to do any editing.

[senu]

The HF 100 is regarded as better insofar as it is similar to the HF10 which is tangible competion to Sony own SR 11/12

You dont need Bluray to view Sony any more than you do to View Canons files

One advantage of the Sony is that it can shoot Standard def as well
otherwise

The Pros and cons of HDD vs SD card boil down to individual preference, not one being Better than the other as such for both video or audi quality
Some camcorders can record to both types of media simultaneously and the SR 10 does allow one or the other

Otherwise the individual camcorders have whole threads on them
While the SR 10 is thought to be a tad less endowed than the SR 11/ 12 I think it is comparable to the HF100.. directly and cost/ Need for SD recording would swing it one way or another

You would be happy with either

[senu]

Originally Posted by RenaultSport

Look here:

HD Camcorder

No, you dont need a bluray player for the Sony as it records to an internal hard drive - however you will need a fairly powerful machine for either of these cams should you wish to do any editing.

This is true . The Sony does also record to Memory stick as well though and you can transfer ( within the camcorder ) from HDD to memory stick for easy Playback via PS3
However AVCHD playback is not a Sony specific isssue

[Moya]

Thanks for ur quick replies. Maybe I'm getting confused on the Blu-Ray thing - the SR10 has a note on compatibility of AVCHD discs which says discs recorded with HD can't be viewed in a DVD device but that you need a AVCHD format compatible device or a computer. It says if you put disc recorded with HD in DVD device it may wipe the content and the DVD player may not eject the disc... What would a AVCHD format compatible device be?

FYI - Currently, I just hvave a standard Panasonic DVD player (D27) and a fairly low-spec computer...

Thanks

[senu]

Originally Posted by Moya

Thanks for ur quick replies. Maybe I'm getting confused on the Blu-Ray thing - the SR10 has a note on compatibility of AVCHD discs which says discs recorded with HD can't be viewed in a DVD device but that you need a AVCHD format compatible device or a computer.

DVD players cannot read hi def files or format so the fact that they are on a DVD disc does not make them playable. They cannot however be erased
AVCHD disc are like Blu ray disc but the media is a DVD disc
They are not Data discs with AVCHD on them

It says if you put disc recorded with HD in DVD device it may wipe the content and the DVD player may not eject the disc... What would a AVCHD format compatible device be?

A PS3 and most recent Blu ray players

FYI - Currently, I just hvave a standard Panasonic DVD player (D27) and a fairly low-spec computer...

You willonly be able to play your footage if you convert the Hi def files to SD DVD
AVCHD will need a decent core 2 duo powered PC with 2 Gb RAM . Quad core even better . This is for playback ,and editing

[Moya]

Thanks. This is all starting to look expensive. I wanted to get HD to try and futureproof the footage a take of my young kids but now wondering if I'd be better with SD format. Seems a shame though... I read on a review site that you can keep the HD files for future use (guess I could do this on an external hard drive) and also saved down the files to SD for viewing but doesn't seem a simple approach... If this was the case would I be better avoiding a hard drive based camcorder?
Thanks

[senu]

Originally Posted by Moya

Thanks. This is all starting to look expensive. I wanted to get HD to try and futureproof the footage a take of my young kids but now wondering if I'd be better with SD format. Seems a shame though... I read on a review site that you can keep the HD files for future use (guess I could do this on an external hard drive) and also saved down the files to SD for viewing but doesn't seem a simple approach... If this was the case would I be better avoiding a hard drive based camcorder?
Thanks

The halfway house is to buy a tape based Hi def ( HDV). With this you can shoot in Hi def, The tapes are archives anyway ( provided you don't reuse them)
This method has the advantage that you can actually capture to a relatively modest PC as Standard def and use your footage to make Standard def DVD videos today
Also you can edit HDV with a modest PC ( compared to what AVCHD needs)
Tapes are relatively cheap and reusable if the footage isn't worth keeping
The downside is that tape is now perceived as "old"
Capture to PC is real time : 1 hr for a 1 hr footage
and
Models are fewer: Canon HV 20/30 Sony HC 9 ( or 7) if you can find it
The perception of old is however market driven as its user base and Pro ( semi pro ) use will mantain it for a while yet
Also although capture is real time once on the PC the files are digital and easy to manipulate
Also there is no evidence that at current the SD card and HDD consumers cams take better quality video ( although this is dependent on individual camcorder). I have use great examples of each . AVC as used to make Bluray is not achievable on consumer camcorders so dont be swayed by the argument that mpeg2 is an old format
The good news is that you dont need to either shoot in SD or convert to SD on the PC.. You can capture to PC as Sd " On the fly" for the purposes of making a Standard def DVD
I would suggest a Tape Hi de