panasonic ag-hmc150 or sony hdr-fx1000?
 

i've decided to buy either one of these, the 2 issues i have not resolved are

the panasonic records in AVCHD format and tapeless while the sony records in HDV, but to tape. the sony seems to be more pro than consumer but i am concerned with HDV and tape being antiquated in the somewhat future.

any thoughts on this? is anyone shooting with either of these yet?

I keep tape backups for everything on HDV tapes, we shoot with a Canon Xh-a1 and secondary shot Canon Hv-10. Both HDV.

from what I have read tape is dying and hdv is getting long in the tooth. the best thing would be to do is rent both of them for a day each and see which one you like.more and more pro cams arent using tape.

those are both older cameras.

thx for the input so far, isn't the HDV codec a better one than the AVCHD though, in terms of both compression and my nle (premiere pro)?

the tape backup is a good point too, and i like the idea of having each scene backed up separate from the others, although i could store on a RAID 0, and hope the RAID will work wwhen the drives crap out. the other thing is yes, tape is going bye bye but what does that mean really? what are the concerns i should have about that fact?

I haven't found any camera rental places that are offering either of these for rent yet, but that is certainly a good suggestion. i've rented before and it helped a lot with previous purchases.

not anymore the new avchd cams now have a higher bit rate than hdv and avchd files dont take up as much room. You can burn raw files on dvds. your computer will have to work harder but you can use software like http://www.cineform.com/products/NeoScene.htm to make the process easier.

that looks like a nice way to handle the processing. Tony, have you looked into either of these cams yet? the Sony looks pretty amazing with the new lens and the sensors and features but the pana sure has the edge with the latest technology.