What HiDef vidCams are best, looking to get 2
 

Perhaps some content producers here could comment on what the best hidef video cameras are right now availavble to buy retail, I am in the market to buy 2 and want to have the best available, I seen some from jvc and sony, what is better?

Thank you in advance.

Panasonic HVX - 200 I have one and it kicks ass

what he said

thanks, but the p2 mem cards for them cost a fourtune, what about any cameras similar with a hd build in? any pros or cons?

Sony DVD Camera....not sure of the model at the moment

You sell content?.. stick with it.. DVD camera.. LMAO...

oopps i guess my beers tonight didnt allow me to read your entire post...i thought you meant for live cams .... :rasta

You want true HD go with the Panny. If HDV is good for you then I'd say the Canon HXA1 is the best HDV cam out there. I've seen a lot of issues from the Sony's, like body noise and a few other issues. Depends on your budget though.

I am looking now for a retailer in Montreal that I can go view the panasonic or the canon at, but can not seem to even find one place.. brutal.

Canon xha1 :thumbsup

They were sold out almost everywhere in Vancouver a while back too. We got our Canon by chance, one of the last in town. They can't make em fast enough it seems.

Yeah Lance were going with the Canon......just waiting for it to show up at the door

The Panasonic HVX-200 is the ONLY true hi-def camera under $30,000 at present.

True hi-def exceeds the amount of data it's possible to store on tape, so the other cameras that use tape (HDV format) use very highly compressed MPEG to cram the info onto tape, discarding most of the color definition information and also using a "lossy" compression format that does not lend itself well to multiple generations of edits. Likewise, MPEG compression doesn't do well when faced with lots of video information, such as detailed backgrounds (think rustling leaves or a bunch of people moving around in a room, that sort of thing). It gets blocky and focus.

The Panasonic can record in any of a bunch of different formats (including standard definition to regular DV tape), and in highest definition format, can record 1920x1080p at 30 fps (full frames, no interlacing) , or at 720p at 60 fps (no interlacing.)

Yes, the P2 cards are expensive, but coming down in price dramatically, and there are several hard disk and even direct-to-laptop solutions available. And the flip side is, you have no tape costs at all (except for backup media) and you don't have to spend any time capturing your video because it's already on your laptop. You also get used to capturing what you want, deleting the unwanted crap on the fly, so your editing time is much shorter.

We spent a good 6 months testing, evaluating and researching, bought the Panasonic, and have been delighted with it ever since.

The truth is, HDV is definitely serviceable, but it is NOT true HD, and if you're shooting your content with the intent of delivering high quality HD in the future, you'd be better off with the Panasonic.

Gaybucks is absolutely correct, which is why I said the Canon is the best "HDV" cam. The Panny is in an entirely different league. If I had the budget for it and the extra hardware there'd really be no other choice.

I want one.... I am jealous.

Thank you so much guys, I am going to buy 2 Panasonic HVX - 200 camera's tommorow, I managed to track down someone a friend knows from Mel's Cite du cinema ( where they do big budget movies/tv series etc) here in Montreal, he has a direct way of getting me 2 of these cameras right away.

I did a lot of reading and yes by far those panasonics are incredible and have many of the parts that the other 80k camera's do. These only cost 8k Canadian dollars each, with a 16gig card and a direct to hd/laptop solution it will land me around 11k-12k each, I will know tommorow when I go pick them up. They look very nice I look forward to playing with them.

Sony HDR-FX1 for full size

Canon Hv20 if you need hand-held POV HD

I just bought 2 today, both with the fs-100 hard drive module (100 gigs) and additional bats and chargers, they came to $9800 canadian each with the bells and whistles, I shopped around and seems that I got a fair deal.

Thanks for your help again and I love these cameras, they have so many options and look awesome too, I am playing with one now, not a bad price for true hd!