The JVC GZ-HD7, the first of the JVC HDD cameras is now a little
over a year old and discontinued, but I’ve seen these on line for
as little as $800. A really nice Fujinon lens makes a huge
difference and full manual controls is important. Three 1/5’ 16:9
progressive scan CCD’s are pretty impressive for a camera in this
price range. It has manual controls, a mic input and an excellent
focus ring which is surprisingly rare on small cameras. It
records directly to a built in 60GB hard drive. The issue here is
the MPEG-2 compression (TOD). It’s not compatible with many NLE’s
so you’ll need to convert the TOD to QuickTime or AVI.
The GZ-HD6 can record 1080/60p through HDMI - pretty impressive.
The GZ-HD40 is a bit of a disappointment. I like that it records
using AVCHD compression which makes it compatible with most NLE’s
but it loses the important focus ring. And it’s so small.
The Panasonic HDC-SD100 uses a 3-CMOS array and records 1920 x
1080 video in the AVCHD format to SD and SDHC memory cards. I
like the ring on the lens that controls zoom, focus, white
balance, shutter speed, and iris and it actually has a viewfinder
in addition to the LCD screen. Very important it has both a mic
and headphone jack. I found it difficult to handle with all the
cables attached (mic, headphones and monitor) but it’s a camera
with all the basics.
The Panasonic HDC-HS300 is a fine camera. I got to use it in
January for a little test run shooting some behind the scenes
footage for a model shoot in Las Vegas. I likes the focus ring -
a great improvement over similar cameras. But I didn’t like the
touch screen controls. On the plus side it has the essentials -
headphone and mic jacks and manual control over all the basics. I
like that it uses the AVCHD format. There is a nice toggle switch
at the front of the lens for switching between the zoom and the
focus. It took just a few tries for me to master it.
Close is the Canon HV20. It’s an excellent camera. It records in
HDV (1080i) and 24p (60i), has a mic input and manual controls of
white balance and focus but it uses one 1/2.7” CMOS sensor rather
than 3 CCD’s. My only reservation is it’s so small the handling
is difficult.
The HV30 adds a 30f (Canon’s “frame mode”) in addition to 24p.
The Sony HDR-SR12 has a mic input and a good sized 120GB HDD. It
uses a 1/3” CMOS chip and like the Canon is really small. Because
of the input placement, the mic cable kept getting in my way. The
HR9 (which records to tape) is also a nice, very small, camera
with the essentials. Again the mic input is just below the lens
which is rather poor placement, in my opinion.
Pushing the price cap is the Sony HD1000U. It’s $1,400 and has all
the essentials. The touch screen is too unusual for me - I’m old
school - but it works quite well. I like that it’s a shoulder
mount camera. It only uses one CMOS Sensor, but the image was
very nice.