Deciding on an HDV camera

Sub $2000? There are not many choices. Look at the Sony HC3. That's about it.

Steven
http://www.stevengotz.com

In the sub $2000 price range you have a few choices for HDV

1. The discontinued Sony HDR-HC1 or the Sony HVR-A1 starting at $1500
2. Sony HDR-HC3 starting at $1350
3. JVC GR-HD1 or the discontinued JVC JY-HD10 starting at $1700
4. Sanyo Xacti HD digital media camera which uses SD cards instead of tape starting at $750

Next year Panasonic will debut the AVCHD format while JVC will debut the HD Everio.

So, it sounds like it might be a good idea to wait a little while before I purchase. Does anyone have any details or sites with info about the new AVC-HD that Panasonic and Sony are releasing? so will this completly take the place of HDV, and be a new format I assume. I am just hoping someday an affordable 3CCD HD camera will be availible...I would love to get one of the HVX's for the price I paid for my DVX....

Whether it will replace HDV is a question that the marketplace will answer. It has been announced as a consumer format, but then again so was HDV, and so was DV. That didn't stop pro HDV cameras like the Z1/HD100/XLH1 or pro DV cameras like the DVX & DV5000 from being announced.

AVC-HD is a superior format in many ways (uncompressed audio in 5.1 channels or Dolby Digital AC-3 audio in 7.1 surround sound, full-raster recording, more efficient codec, and true 24p support in both 720 and 1080) and an equal in other ways (same 4:2:0 color sampling, etc). I cannot fathom why we wouldn't see equally pro cameras being developed around this format. On paper it even offers some advantages over XDCAM-HD as a recording format (better audio, no prefiltering to 1440, etc)(although obviously the camera head that it's attached to will make more of a difference than just the recording format!)

The main differentiator will be recording medium; HDV is based around recording on tape, and AVC-HD is a tapeless system. Sony is implementing it via recording on mini-DVD discs, Panasonic is implementing it via recording on SD memory cards (which keeps with their corporate philosophy on their bigger cameras, where Sony uses blu-ray optical discs and Panasonic uses solid-state P2 memory cards). So as long as people demand a tape-based system, HDV will continue; if people express a preference for tapeless, AVC-HD fits that bill.

The other main differentiator is that HDV product is on the market and available for purchase right now, whereas AVC-HD has only just been announced as a format and there's no definite time table as to when the first AVC-HD products will hit the market.

There's talk that the FX1 has been discontinued; I wouldn't be surprised at all if Sony replaced the FX1 with an AVC-HD-based FX2.

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For all practical purposes the JVC GR-HD1 and JY-HD10 HDV camera can be considered to have the equivalent color fidelity of a 3 CCD HDV camera under good lighting conditions. Even though it uses only one chip the JVC can sample 2.5 megapixels of color information which rivals the Sony 3CCD which can sample 3 megapixels of color information. Some experts even consider the color fidelity of the single chip JVC to be superior to the 3 chip Sony under good lighting conditions. Although the JVC is not as compact as the Sony HDR-HC3 nevertheless it represents an excellent value for film makers who desire a low cost progressive scan camcorder that can achieve the film look.

If you go with the Sony HC1 or HC3 it does have a progressive cineframe mode which averages 24 frames per secound but the vertical resolution is only 540 lines not the 1080 of the interlaced mode.

What is interesting is that Sanyo introduced a high definition camcorder that shoots native progressive 720p high definition, is half the cost of the Sony HDR-HC3 and is very compatible with the new flat panel 720p displays which are also natively progressive, and has an ultra-compact form factor. Yet most stores refuse to stock this product because the reviewers keep saying that 720p is not real high definition therefore the camera is a waste of money. Yet if you get a chance to download any Sanyo footage you will see that this camera is an amazing value for the $800 price point and not everyone can afford to spend $1500 for a Sony even though Sony is probably the better camera. With that said it certainly is not impossible to shoot at 30 frames per second if you carefully track the object you are shooting and even this is an improvement over digital still cameras which have movie modes of only 15 frames per second.

Consummers by and large have had no need for a progressive cam. JVC has not rushed to update the ground breaking HD1/10 series, as it is really the prosummer/pro who demands progressive. An interlaced cam allows very poor shooting skills to still be somewhat watchable due to the higher motion capture.

When 60p become common place then consummers will use it. You have to understand that most consummers don't know how or care to learn how to shoot 24/30p. It ends up looking like a choppy mess. They like to walk around the back yard looking through the view finder making all of us sea sick. For non-locked-down shots the higher the motion capture the better. At this moment 60i would be it. When 60p is common in a consummer cam and everyone has progressive TV's (won't be long) then 720p60 will clearly be the format to have.

I think that the best way to compare cameras is to download some footage in high definition. Check out
http://www.hd-channel.com It is a german site but they have footage of both the Sony HDR-FX1 and the JVC JY-HD10

For the money you can't beat the HC1. I personally have an A1U, but I have used the HC1 for my second camera and the video is exactly the same. If you need the audio you can get the lowest price beechtek-4 and it works perfectly with the one exception of no phantom power.

Here are some sample clips form my HVR-A1U. These are show the good and the bad about the camera.

http://www.filmguideseattle.com/hvr-a1U_test_shots.wmv