any suggestions on a camera
 

I want to purchase a vid camera that can produce awesome footage and take quality pictures. The hv10 seem nice with 1080i but its not progressive and has low MP pix. Sanyo hd2 has a 7.1 MP and 720 progressive but its performance isnt great based on reviews from the web. Any ideas for making a good purchase?

Canon HV20.

Canon HV20.

Canon HV20....seeing a trend here? :)

Ech Vee Twenty

Ah, Wes comes in with our first dissenting vote! :) :) :)

Thanks everyone for your feedback! Ok hv20 is preferred. At one time, I was considering the sanyo hd2 with the abililty of storing data on a computer via sd card. Is the hv20 as covenient in transferring data and are there other aspects that make the hv20 a better purchase?

This cam is tape based.



Good lowlight features and 24P but most importantly its superior picture quality.

Excellent price for such a small and powerful package.

The HV20 uses a miniSD card which is smaller that a regular secure digital card. You could take it out of the camera when needing to transfer images. I think the better choice would be to connect the usb cable from the computer to the camera and download it that way. Once the card is in the camera, I tend to leave it there unless it's full.

Sanyo vs Canon. hmm not much of a choice for me. HV20 all the way! I'm also a long time Canon user w/ multiple DLSRs and a collection of lenses. I've never been let down by Canon or the quality that comes with that name.

I downloaded some various 3mp pictures (taken from an HV10) and printed them at 4x6. No problem with quality there. I also printed a few at 5x7. No problems there either. The thing you need to ask is how large will these prints be. If it's 5x7 or less, 3mp should be plenty resolution. I've never tried larger prints with anything less that 6mp.
I would rather have my little ole 6mp 10D than any point and shoot 10 mp camera. The sensor size and quality is what you want to look at, not the mp count.



Anyway.... HV20 :) Good luck with whatever your choice turns out to be.

Thanks again for all of your input. A few more questions: How would I be able to transfer the video data from the tape to computer to possibly burn to dvd-r? would I use Cam to USB instead of tape? And are the tapes re-recordable? Sorry for not having done my research but I know you guys are reliable.

You can record over tapes. You transfer video from the camera to your computer via the FireWire port. USB is only for still images off of the memory card.

I see there are several packages (i.e. THE STARTER KIT, THE TRAVEL KIT, and THE PREMIUM KIT (Professional kit)) available. Do you guys recommend getting a package or selecting single items? What are some accessories that are useful to add that you guys recomend? Thanks again.

Re: Accessories, the need is wide ranging depending on your needs. See this thread which is right on point to your question:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=89452

Hey William, while you can record over tapes, it's been my experience (in the DV world) that it's a mistake.

Tape stock is cheap and I, personally, would NOT re-use tapes. With possible repercussions of broken timecode, tape dropouts, and/or losing a once in a lifetime shot, I'd rather spend $3 on another tape.