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If I were shopping for a new camcorder today, which one would I buy?

I’ve had this question come up several times recently, and it’s difficult to answer. The truth is that almost any camera you get these days is going to be great, because they all have such advanced technology and great imagery.

That said, after doing some of my own research, I really like the Sony HVR-V1U. I never use removable lenses, so this could really work for me. Do any of you own this camera? Or have any of you used it? If so, what do you think of it?

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  • http://www.camerontrejofilms.com Cameron Trejo

    Izzy I own this camera and it definitely is a great HDV cam. Low light performance is fantastic – manual controls are fantastic – and the 24p looks great as well. Down sides . . working with HDV is a pain in the neck, but with Apple’s announcement today that may all change. THe HDMI out is also great – especially with BlackMagic designs Intensity card. Uncompressed HD with realtime monitoring on a plasma is the way to go. Email me if you have any questions.

  • http://www.yafiunderground.com Cole McDonald

    Just looked at the specs…it’s only a 1/4″ chip, so the depth of field (DoF) will be a bit longer than the 1/3″ cameras that are out. I’d have problems with it…but at least you’d be able to make out the background detail with it’s 1080p24/30 happiness :) (the geek will shut up now and do some ‘splainin’!)

    For reference, super 8mm film is considered to have a resolution of about 1000 lines, this camera does 1080 lines and measures 6.5mm, so it’s quite comparable to a super8mm film camera. The biggest difference is the contrast range of the two, digital goes from white to black in many fewer steps than film does…so whites will tend to blow out and blacks will tend to crush quickly…this is true with any digital camera though and is solved with careful lighting and exposure :)

  • http://www.kyleprohaska.com Kyle

    I suggest the Canon XH-A1 personally, its a better buy than the V1, especially since its 3058 after rebate at BH right now, 1/3rd chips, and 1.67MP a CCD. I’ve had it for a month or so now and its an incredible camera. Besides ive heard/read articles that the V1 has many issues including errors in its 25p and 24p. Its internal in the camera, so it can’t really be fixed. Ide rather get the 1/3rd chip camera personally, the higher rez, and the 20x zoom. Thats just me though ;)

  • Gregory

    I agree with Izzy, for me it is about the glass first and the CCD next, finally the camera must have full manual control. Removable lenses, and I shoot with XL1 and XL2 cameras, are overrated. 24p? forget about it can be done in post just as well with plugins. For my money the HVX-200 is the hot camera out there.

    Every time I see clip on the web and dig the cinematography or notice how amazing some video looks, invariably it turns out to be shot on that camera, 2nd place is the Sony PD-150 PAL version, but that is not HD. My advice is to not shop on specs but actually rent or borrow the cameras you can afford, shoot something with them using your style, lighting, angles, etc. and then choose. Don’t buy just on specs alone.

  • http://www.leetj.com Tracey

    I have been stewing over HD lately but I didn’t have a ton of money. Of course I was looking at a Canon, since I own the GL2 I have been impressed with the color you get from Canon camcorders. I really wanted the XH-A1 but right now I have no paying gigs and just could not afford 4K. So I researched the crap out of a few lower end HD camcorders to include Sony, JVC, and Panasonic as well as Canon.

    After a lot of headaches, I decided to trust the folks at the hv20.com message boards. I purchased the HD20 last night and tinkered with it a bit. For about a thousand dollars, it is truly amazing what you get with both manual control and picture quality. It beats the GL2 hands down. I shot this footage with very bad lighting last night and was pretty amazed:

    http://www.leetj.com/videos/firstHD.mov

    You actually get a lot of manual control and what used to take a great deal of pain and effort to get with the GL2 (by way of color and depth) was effortless with the HV20. The clip was shot with a noce cinema mode preset, at 24p, and I did very very little color corection in final cut.

    Very nice and highly recommended if you want affordable HD. I am even planning on selling my GL2.