JVC Hard drive video camera - no more tapes!!!

[Shempster]

Throw away your mini-dv tape cams and check this sucker out. Hard drive cams are here:

http://www.jvc.com/product.jsp?model...324&pathId=119

Website description excerpt:

The Everio records 60 minutes of MiniDV quality MPEG-2 video or over 5,500 1600x1200 UXGA high resolution stills on the included high capacity 4GB Microdrive® card. Thanks to its 2.12M CCD imager, Super Hi-Rez Lens and JVC's exclusive Megabrid engine you’re getting the latest technology for superior performance. Make digital-to-digital transfers using the USB 2.0 interface for quick downloading to a PC. Print directly from the USB to any PictBridge compatible printer. The rotating grip of the MC200 let's you comfortably transition shooting angles from the palm of your hand.

4GB Microdrive® SD-Video MPEG-2 PS recording format
1/3.6 inch 2.12 Megapixel CCD imager
130,000-pixel 1.8" polycrystalline silicon color LCD monitor
Digital Image Stabilizer (using "gyro-sensor")
Shutter Speeds (Video: 1/2 to 1/4000th sec.; Still: 1/2 to 1/500th sec.)

Around $1800...

I KNOW Joe could shoot some rockin video with this...

[DaleC]

Brandon - that looks like a sweet video camera, but I have been looking and studying and have been giving the Panasonic PV-GS400 a 2nd and 3rd look. So many choices and options and factors involved so it's pretty easy to get buried in the stat's, but camcorderinfo.com gave it a great review:

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content...der-Review.htm



The Panasonic PV-GS400 is the best camcorder value I've ever reviewed. Whoever designed this camcorder, and any engineers who worked on it, deserve a raise. (That's to you, Matsushita). Of course, there are camcorders from pro divisions that beat the PV-GS400; however, they certainly don't offer anything close to the value that the PV-GS400 does. The only other consumer camcorder on the market today which offers better features and quality is Sony's DCR-VX2100, which costs $2,300!

The PV-GS400 unquestionably beats Sony's 3 CCD DCR-HC1000. When Sony replaced the DCR-TRV950 with the DCR-HC1000, they forced all manual control into the touch screen and stripped it of many of the features which made the DCR-TRV950 a solid camcorder. Although it's $200 - $300 less, the PV-GS400 offers bettter manual control and is unquestionably a better value in my mind. Although the Canon GL2 offers much stiffer competition, the PV-GS400 includes more features and is a much better deal.

I certainly recomend the PV-GS400. It offers amazing video, amazing manual control, and a bunch of other useful features which would help any videographer to shoot great video. I loved the PV-DV953, and I love the PV-GS400 even more. Although there are a few camcorders which were recently released this summer, I can confidently say that the PV-GS400 is the best value on the market today.

The Panasonic PV-GS400 is a model of excellent camcorder design and engineering. Although we can't make an official announcement until we've looked at a few more camcorders, I would say that Pansonic PV-GS400 is far ahead in the competition to be the rated as the CamcorderInfo.com SuperCam of 2004 - representing excellence in camcorders.

Some great prices on it too at just over $800. Now the question is whether a great $350. camcorder would do just as good a job on a bike (and other places).....

DaleC

[FD929]

I don't think you could beat Hi-8 even with mini-dv or a H/D IMO. Nothing on the market so far beats the versatility of being able to pull out a tape and pop in another. Your only limitation at that point is battery power.

How would mounting that to a bike affect the hard drive? Wouldn't hard bumps damage it?

[Backmarker]

Originally Posted by FD929

How would mounting that to a bike affect the hard drive? Wouldn't hard bumps damage it?

I know it makes a difference with MP3 players. The Dell Jukebox will completely stop if the road surface makes it unhappy then it will restart when it's happy again. Might make a difference with a camera as well.

[Warrior]

You can think of a hard drive just like a cd player. There's still a motor spinning a disk, so hard knocks can cause it to skip.

I have a flash drive mp3 player, purely digital. So I could drag it along the road and if the headphones stayed in have skip free music. The only downside to flash drive is that the memory is still small. 1 GB I think is still the largest size. If/when flash based drives become large enough, I think a skip free digital camera will be developed.

Whoa, little rush of geek went running through me.

[Helmetdance]

Originally Posted by Warrior

You can think of a hard drive just like a cd player. There's still a motor spinning a disk, so hard knocks can cause it to skip.

I have a flash drive mp3 player, purely digital. So I could drag it along the road and if the headphones stayed in have skip free music. The only downside to flash drive is that the memory is still small. 1 GB I think is still the largest size. If/when flash based drives become large enough, I think a skip free digital camera will be developed.

Whoa, little rush of geek went running through me.

Warrior - Good observation on the hard drive. That's the same reason why Garmin recommends their 2610 GPS over the 2620 for use on cycles. The two GPS models are the same except for the memory. The 2610 uses a memory card while the 2620 uses a hard drive. It would be real frustrating to buy an expensive video cam for a bike only to find breaks or choppiness in the video where the hard drive froze up due to vibration. The memory card sounds like a beter way to go for motorcycle use.

Mark

[Grassy]

I'm throwing away my tapes, but this is what I'm getting instead...

Focus Firestore FS-4

Makes editing a snap... no more time spent capturing.

[Helmetdance]

Originally Posted by Grassy

I'm throwing away my tapes, but this is what I'm getting instead...

Focus Firestore FS-4

Makes editing a snap... no more time spent capturing.

She's a beauty! OK - How much??

[Grassy]

Originally Posted by Helmetdance

She's a beauty! OK - How much??

I think I saw it for around $800. It's 3 hours of recording time. If you do a lot of video I think it's worth it. I have spent countless hours capturing video from tapes, all of which puts hours on your machines. I've got a DV deck so I'm not wearing out my camera, but now I don't have to worry about a deck, it's all in one.

For the serious hobbist it's worth it.

[Grassy]

Originally Posted by com3

whoa! i thought you lived in socal..not lemoore. man, it gets HOT over there.

Just moved here from San Diego, can't say I like it too much. lol I'll get to video some new roads... trying to stay positive.