I have 2 sony Z5U's and need to purchase a small HD cam to video pre wedding stuff like the bride getting ready and the groom getting ready. Does anyone have any recomendations on a video camera the is totally compatible with cinefrom? That I can just take the footage off the cam using HDlink? I have seen some post on issue with trying to get the video off the camera with CF.

Canon HV40

Yeah HV30 and HV40 is a very capable camera. If you shoot 24p, HV40 would be a better choice.

I shoot 60i I just found Canon VIXIA HG20 High for $549 does anyone know anything about compatibality on this one?

Thanks

HG20 is a AVCHD camera record 1920x1080 compared to HDV 1440x1080. I would get another HDV cam to mix footage that works better in your NLE timeline

Thanks Taky Cheung

HV40 it is. I was looking at all the small sony's and they do not offer a HDV any more?

The HC9 was the last of Sony's consumer HDV tape cams. But there are a million HC9s, 7s, and 3s on eBay. The Sony Online Outlet occasionally has them as well.

Since we're talking about Sony, why did they stop their tape cams? Are they doing HDV (and AVCHD) on SDHC cards soley now or is there some other reason?

People laughed last year when I said HDV was dying rapidly. It's the same reason you don't go into a music store today and buy audio cassettes. HDV is really a bad codec as far as HD is concerned, and tape has far too many liabilities.

Tapless is the way forward, and AVC (or other mpeg4/wavelet) codec is what will be written to them for some time to come.

HDV was important for the transition of the consumer market from SD to HDV, but it's time is pretty much done.