i'm interested in buying a camcorder for around £500 to shoot short movies to be edited using windows movie maker.

I have been looking recently at sony hard disc drive models but am unsure what sort of megapixel resolution i require as i do not intend to use the camcorder for stills.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks,

jcgr90

Forget buying a hard disk camera.

Really.

You will regret it when you try to edit your footage.

Choose a tape-based miniDV model instead. £500 will buy a very nice camcorder.

Camcorder buying guide. Consumer advice on camcorders and video cameras.

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Hi,

I'm also looking to buy a new camcorder. I recently found out about the HDD cameras and have heard negative things but am wondering whether things have improved in the last few months? I have been recommended the new sony HD camera which records to hard disk drive (eg this one: Sony : HDR-SR5E (HDRSR5E) : United Kingdom )
I would be editing videos on Final Cut Express 3.5. Is the quality of recording low on a camera like this due to the compression used even though it is HD? Will the videos be harder to edit as they are not MiniDV?

Any advice appreciated! Thanks.

This camera compresses its HD footage at 15Mbps (best quality, 7Mbps at 'standard' quality).

MiniDV HDV cameras compress at 25Mbps.

I'd stick with a miniDV HDV camera - the format is more mature than AVCHD, enjoying far greater compatibility with modern editing software.

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was wondering if you could explain a bit about why a hard disk drive camcorder is ineffective for editing please.

Also, do i need a high megapixel camcorder if i am not to use the camera for stills? Thanks

jcgr90

Hard Drive camcorders record video footage in MPEG2 format. This is a highly compressed format that was originally intended as a distribution format (eg DVD) rather than an editing one. Whilst there are some programs that can now edit MPEG2 files natively, they still find it somewhat of a chore, compared to DV AVI video files. These forums are littered with cries for editing help from owners of hard drive cameras.

miniDV tape-based cameras record in DV AVI format. This format is much less compressed than MPEG2. Editing programs are far better suited to editing DV AVI footage. The process is far less demanding on the PC.

So, pound for pound, I believe you get better value in terms of quality and ease of use with the latter format. Tape also gives you an instant archive of your footage. Hard Drive-based footage gives you an instant archive issue.

Megapixels are still relevant to camcorders. Just like stills cameras, camcorder imaging chips generally speaking capture better images if they have a higher pixel count. But so many other factors effect the ultimate quality of the footage. The quality of the lens is one, as is the integrity of the signal processing chips.

But the biggest thing affecting the quality of your films has little to do with the quality of the camera. How you use the camera, what you point it at, how you edit the footage, and how good you are at storytelling matter far more.

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There's only one HDD camera worth considering...

http://www.red.com/cameras.shtml

but not many people will like it's £9,000 price tag

Hi i have a sony hard disc drive camcorder and as i keep saying it is rubbish. The quality of footage is average, transfer to pc is USB2 not firewire. Its editing software is very basic, windows moviemaker is way better, i ended up buying the lattest version of pinnicle then a new graphics card. so the whole sony HDD experiance has cost me alot for something very substandard.
Sony it seems have become very lazy, choose another brand theres alot of quality out there for alot less money.
cheers Colin