Offbeat question but value your opinions

[roxnrolls]

It looks as if my Canon video camera is about to give up the ghost. I'm wondering what all of you think of the new "Harddrive" video cameras and how they intreface with Roxio. Would there be a big transition from my digital tape videocamera in complexity? Quality? Other aaspects?

 

As always, thanks for your invaluable information.

[Beerman]

It looks as if my Canon video camera is about to give up the ghost. I'm wondering what all of you think of the new "Harddrive" video cameras and how they intreface with Roxio. Would there be a big transition from my digital tape videocamera in complexity? Quality? Other aaspects?

 

As always, thanks for your invaluable information.

I personally don't know anyone that has one of the hard drive models but I have seen mixed reviews. I'm interested in finding out more myself but have you tried searching for user reviews on the net? Some of the photography web sites have their own reviews and I wonder about some of the major reviewing sites. You want to know what the 'guy on the ground' likes and dislikes. I'm curious as to the battery life and weight of these cameras.

[ggrussell]

Here is my experience: My daughter has the JVC Everio 20gig model. It has two settings. I for get what the bitrates are, but the highest is suppose to be 'DVD' quality. It records directly to MPEG 2 files and connects to the PC using USB2. When connected to the PC, Windows 'sees' the camcorder as an external hard drive so all you do is copy the files OR you can use them directly from the camcorder (although I think it uses the slower 5400rpm laptop drives). The file extension - for some odd reason - is .MOD. Just change the extension to MPG and the files work perfectly fine in Videowave and MyDVD 8. Caveat - I worked fine FOR ME. LOL

 

The JVC is VERY small and light. Personally, I perfer something just a little larger. My fingers aren't that large and I hate fiddling with tiny buttons.

 

My personal prefence is still tape: miniDV or 8mm. When the tape is full, just insert a new tape. With the hard drive models, you're done when it's full or must transfer to a comptuer.

[james_hardin]

Battery life would be a consideration. Any time you are powering motors, you are eating your battery life…

 

I too am fond of tape. Too many occasions come up where I am not sure I have transferred everything to my PC yet. With tape, just put in a new one and I can check it out later.

 

If they keep getting these cameras smaller and smaller, I am going to have to duct tape a stylus to one just so I can punch the buttons!

 

I still have my first one. The camera balances nicely on my shoulder and is pretty light weight. The actual recorder (VHS) hangs from a strap on my other shoulder like a mill stone…

[sknis]

I still have my first one. The camera balances nicely on my shoulder and is pretty light weight. The actual recorder (VHS) hangs from a strap on my other shoulder like a mill stone…

I had one of those; worked great but the viewfinder went out. That was followed by a Fisher that also worked great except it could never focus; it looked like a pair of binoculars. My analog Sony is the third. I take it out about once a year. 450 zoom was a blast if you didn't mind a little (actually lot) of pixilastion.

[ggrussell]

The actual recorder (VHS) hangs from a strap on my other shoulder like a mill stone…

I had a Hatachi model. It actually had a real vidicon tube for imaging. I ended up selling to a friend almost 12 years ago. LOL