I want to buy a hi def camera..but need help

[PEPPER]

Ive been using a brilliant sony dcr-pc9e mini dv cam fro a few years now,and want a new cam.So the natural progression would be a hi-def cam,but not sure how i feel about not having a solid back up copy( as i do with my mini dv tapes ).If anythiong goes wrong with anything ive transferred to dvd from my cam,i can just re transfer from the orginal tape.Obviously i cant do this with a hard drive cam.So for anyone on here that owns a cam with a hard drive/memory stick,could you share id be interested to know what you do.Do you save all the memory sticks so you have them as a back up,or is that too expensive to buy a new stick for every event you film.There are a few that use hi def tapes that can record 60 mins in hi def video,and ideally that would be perfect,but eventually tapes will be fazed out altogether.There are tons of reasonably priced hi def cams on the market and would love to get one in the next few months( fingers tightly crossed ).

[AAR.oner]

buy a tape-based HD cam...quality for price, lots of folks are raving about this cam:
http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1118712

[saltman]

The camera will be broken and you will have a different one far before tapes will phase out. If they ever will. IMO tape based cameras are the way to go for the reasons you mention.

[maidencolorado]

I've had too many problems (buffer issues) with a hard drive camera to ever recommend one for anyone who wants to film concerts. If it will be exclusively for things like filming family events and outings, it would be fine for that.

Tapes will be around for some time. The HV30 that was linked above is a fantastic cammie, but I think it is being (has recently been?) discontinued in lieu of the HV40, which from what I've seen doesn't offer much more other than a higher price tag. You can still find the HV30 many places, so it wouldn't hurt to give it a good look.

[PEPPER]

The camera will be broken and you will have a different one far before tapes will phase out. If they ever will. IMO tape based cameras are the way to go for the reasons you mention.


Thanks for that info,i think a hi def mini dv would be the perfect,but just wanted some opinions on the non tape cams.

[PEPPER]

I've had too many problems (buffer issues) with a hard drive camera to ever recommend one for anyone who wants to film concerts. If it will be exclusively for things like filming family events and outings, it would be fine for that.

Tapes will be around for some time. The HV30 that was linked above is a fantastic cammie, but I think it is being (has recently been?) discontinued in lieu of the HV40, which from what I've seen doesn't offer much more other than a higher price tag. You can still find the HV30 many places, so it wouldn't hurt to give it a good look.

I will be using it for anything and everything really,which would include live shows.Ive been looking at the hv 20,30 and they look really nice cameras.I will have a look at the hv 40 too.

[Jerm]

I have a JVC Everio HDD cam and while I haven't had a chance to record any shows with it yet, I'm very pleased with the ease of use and especially the clarity. I need to score a BD burner so I can output the footage in full 1080 resolution. So far though I have had no tech issues or anything with the camera and the software still allows me to create downsampled 720 DVDs for playback on regular players.
At Christmas I just put it on a tripod in the corner of the room and let it run for about 3 hours, then just plugged an HDMI cable into it straight into a 52" Samsung and watched the playback. Cant think a live concert would be much different.
Personally, I'm done with tapes. I'm old enough to have had 8 tracks, reel-reels, cassettes, etc and they will ALL fail eventually, just as anything electronic will as well.

Only my .02...