Going...going...
 

I bought a brown one today...still $299. The silver, probably the most popular color, had jumped up in price but the odd colors, brown and red, are still at rock bottom prices. Odd, isn't it, to be choosing a camcorder on the basis of color now.

As of this second the brown one is $350, silver is $518, and red is $380. Silver used to be the least expensive one, who knows what they're doing. No where else are the prices fluctuating or dropping. I'm glad I got mine from Amazon. :-)

I've used both, I feel the HV10 has a better picture and feels better in the hand. However the HD700 is nice in the pocket. I do like going to tape because hey, hard drives crash too... would hate to see my footage gone forever. That and you can playback all the mini-DV tapes you acquired over the years.

On a technical side I think the HDV of the HV10 looks better than the compression of the HD700. Much cleaner, look at a waterfall then you'll notice the quality instantly with out a doubt.

Just a thought to consider, how much you shoot will also affect how much storage you'll need with the HD700. With HDV tape an hour of footage will cost you about $3 to store forever.

Hmm. The HD700 uses a SD/SDHC card, not a hard drive. Not sure cards crash. Also, the cards aren't expensive, just saw a 8GB Class 6 for $30 after rebate -- smaller cards are cheaper. On the HD700 you can record 2 hours and 46 minutes on a 8GB SDHC card. Cards are reusable over and over and over, they're very small in size, and 32GB ones are on the way -- that's a LOT of video. Cards take less time and effort to load on the computer, and data can be burned to DVD, DL-DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray, or whatever for archiving. Not to mention the decent quality stills you can take and store on the same card as your video.

Tape does not last forever, it ages, and can have all sorts of problems. Even if it did last forever if you change cameras, formats (SD, HD, HDV, AVC/H.264, et al), you may or may not be able to read your old tapes on your new gear. How's that 8-track tape collection working? :-) Heck, when was the last time you saw a record player or cassette recorder?

Tape is on the way out. Not today, but soon. I have three miniDV cameras and I have to say that using my HD700 has spoiled me. I grumble when I have to use tape now.

A REAL big difference between the 2 cameras is image quality and in that regard- the HV10 is leaps ahead of the HD700....at the price of some inconveniences with tapes.

the acid test
 

In plain simple terms, looking at two large-screen tvs side by side with one projecting HV10 footage and the other HD700, what would the untrained eye notice? (I ask this because I am going to do a backpacking documentary using the lightest possible gear...but I don't want to compromise much on image quality. And my HD 700 hasn't arrived yet.)

Cards can crash. I've had more than one SD card go bad on me. Cheap cards are easily corruptible, but I've also had a SanDisk SD card go south. It can happen.

Hm, Chris, you could be the unlucky one to have two crashed.
So far I never crashed any compact flash nor SD cards.
But hey, I had more than few brand new Barracuda ES's crashed on me.

Whoa. More than one?!? I've never had a card cash, even left one of the old SmartMedia cards in a pair of pants that were washed and dried, data was intact! I'm serious. I knew that the microdrives can crash. Learn something new everyday.

Memory Card Error: Card Locked!

...this from a SanDisk 256MB SD card with the card lock switch in the open / unlocked position. Also, a 1GB SanDisk Ultra II with a stripped housing (card housing fell apart). Despite these problems, I continue to use SanDisk cards without complaint. Will try to dig up the boggled 1GB card and photograph it for you.

Now I have seen a card locked glitch like that. Turned out to be my camera and a firmware update fixed it. I use whomever's on sale. Kingston has a $15 rebate on a Class 4 8GB SD card so that's what I'm using. I have other assorted other brands and, so far, not hassles.

Amazon has the price of the HD700 back down to $299.99 on two of the models.

My grandmother turned 85 several days ago and she's getting week so I along with a few of my family members are thinking about visiting her next month in the Azores, Portugal so I really need to save my money for a plane ticket but Amazon needs to calm down with these sales because I’d go berserk if they did something like offering either the Panasonic SD5 or the Sanyo HD1000 for $500 within the next 2 weeks.

HG10 does have an external mic option, and 24P and 1080i I would now look closely at a hd1000 also with a mic option, and 1080i or 720p no 24 though.

edit sorry misread it at first you were comparing the hv10 not hg10 never mind.