Advice on Camcorder Selection

YamerDown

YamerDown

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Joined
Sep 21, 2006
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Location
Ottawa
First child is on the way (17 days to go) and I'm looking to pick up a digital camcorder, but to be honest I've got no clue what to get. Which brands have the best features, etc. I know I definetly want one with a hard disk drive.

Here are some other considerations:
1. Good for action shots (sled videos!!!)
2. Should have reasonable optical zoom (10X min).
3. Was thinking about going high def, any reason not too? They still shoot in standard def too.

The two I've been looking at are the:
Canon HG10 and the Sony HDR-SR5
These two are so cool they even records audio in surround sound, lol.

Any inputs????
 
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Hey if you go to Google and type in HDR-SR5 vs hg10 you get a lot of info for instance:

"Both of them are good and you won't regret getting either. If you want to split hair, HG10 would be the way to go :-) HG10 will perform better in low light situation but a Sony with light mounted on top would do the job as well :-) HG10 is also just a little bit sharper as compared to the Sony. Sony has punchy colors that consumers like while Canon is very true to natural colors that appeal to prosumers more."

Personally I like Canon and that's probably what I would get. I just got a new digital camera a couple months ago and researched them thoroughly and decided to go with Canon. Originally I was going to get a Sony but now after reading everything I've read I just think Canon makes better products.
 
Hey I almost forgot. I don't know if you already know of a really good place to order from but if not you should really try this place: B&H Photo - Video They have excellent ratings on resellerratings.som and they ship extremely fast, they also ship internationally. I just got an LCD HDTV from them and had it a day earlier than what I planned. From now on anything like that that I order will be from there. They also have really good prices.
 
Yama49601 said:
If you want to split hair, HG10 would be the way to go :-) HG10 will perform better in low light situation but a Sony with light mounted on top would do the job as well
Click to expand...
^^^ lol, I know you didn't type that, but it's exactly wrong. The Sony has the Super NightShot® Infrared System which out performs the Canon.

Any of the camera experts (JeepTherapy, kimoaj) out there got any opinions?
 
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Well the nightshot infrared is for total darkness. He was talking about low light. I have a Sony, not an HD like you're talking about and it has nightshot. As far as I know it's only meant for total darkness. But anyway...
 
Update for you guys:

Bought the Sony HDR-SR5 last night. What a cool camcorder, recording in HD is awesome. Charged it up right away and starting shooting some test videos around the house. Lots of fun. Then I started playing them back on my 42” HD plasma. Anyway to make a long story short, even with a tone of lights on you guys (and the reviews) are right, the medium to low light video quality is unimpressive. Yama49601 was right, the Super NightShot® Infrared System is for shooting in pitch black, not something I plan to do a lot of (but it is cool). I even tried it outside today and although the video was a lot less grainy, it was still not as good as I was expecting (or what I saw on the Canon). Anyway, I’m taking it back today and I’m going to go with the Canon.

Thanks to everyone for their inputs.
 
I am just curious if you are gonna use this for a tape of a race between you and snowrules sxr?.....................LOL>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> :flag:
 
Don, you can bet there'll be at least one grudge match on video, probably a few water crossings too. Better yet, we'll get some footage from a couple of radar runs so there are no excuses. Wish I knew where my gear and chain were??? Busy time of year for mail I guess.

Is his piped SXR really going to be that close to my piped Viper? 130HP vs 146HP? Who knows, it will all come out in the wash I guess. Speaking of wash… looks like he might have to rebuild that motor before we get to race. Wasn’t hitting full RPM on the weekend and the plug his Dad brought home was a little on the grey side. Of course if he’s got to rip it apart, he’ll probably send it off to you for a little work. If he hasn’t snuck it out already when I wasn’t watching, lol.

Anyway, everyone stay tuned. We’ll post the results after we finish tuning and line them up. Should be early January. High Definition video to follow.
 
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