Help with buying a cam.....

[Simon_LDT]

What's your budget?

My advice, stay away from Hard Drive cammies. They are fine for family use, and have some nice advantages for that use. But if you plan to use it for concerts as well, you'll likely find it is more trouble than it is worth.

Most likely, you'll need to pick up an extended life battery, as only one of my 5 cammies has a decent battery life to the original one it came with. Even then, I picked up an extra, longer life battery. When shopping for the new battery, look online, you'll be able to find one much cheaper than in a store.

hi what's the problem with a hard drive camera?.. please tell us why we should stay away from those hard drive cameras,on a side note the new JVC Everio 1080p HD camera is 30% smaller (no eye piece) but it looks like they out class alot of other HD cameras because of its 20x optical zoom! and it is around $699 USD it has a 60 gig HDD and also for another $100 USD $799 you can have a 120 gig HDD instead.

edited to show it what do other think about it this is one i was looking at.

JVC GZ-HD300 Everio High Definition 60 gig Hard Disk Camcorder (Onyx Black)
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 8049843959


JVC GZ-HD300 Everio High Definition 120 gig Hard Disk Camcorder (Onyx Black)
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 8049842719



Cj

20x optical zoom is nice, but will be too hard to keep steady for filming concerts I reckon. Plus having no viewfinder is a BIG, BIG mistake. If the LCD went, you'd be fucked lol.

[maidencolorado]

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you on the issues with the HDD cammies, and you'll find this just backs up the other information. Here's my experience.

First shows I filmed with my JVC GZ-MG130U were Megadeth and Heaven and Hell in Columbia, MD 2007. No problems there aside from the audio wasn't as good as I'd have liked, not an issue in the grand scheme. I was a ways back and it was an outside show, not a deafening situation.

After that, a club show, fairly quiet, again no issues. The last two times, however, that I used the HDD cammie, entirely different story. We were running 3 cameras, all JVC HDDs from various places in the club to film Sabbat. Mine made it most of the way through the show, then the buffer issues started in. The one that was furthest from the stage had buffer issues almost right away, but only for the first 10 minutes or so. The third had issues throughout and wasn't actually able to recover long enough for us to get much usable footage. The last time I ran into the issues almost right away and simply put it away and used my MiniDV instead. Never had an issue with a tape.

Sorry for the long winded reply, I was really in favor of the HDD cammies at first, but having gone through what I did, I would not recommend them to anyone who wants to film a concert.

[Cjlcooter]

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you on the issues with the HDD cammies, and you'll find this just backs up the other information. Here's my experience.

First shows I filmed with my JVC GZ-MG130U were Megadeth and Heaven and Hell in Columbia, MD 2007. No problems there aside from the audio wasn't as good as I'd have liked, not an issue in the grand scheme. I was a ways back and it was an outside show, not a deafening situation.

After that, a club show, fairly quiet, again no issues. The last two times, however, that I used the HDD cammie, entirely different story. We were running 3 cameras, all JVC HDDs from various places in the club to film Sabbat. Mine made it most of the way through the show, then the buffer issues started in. The one that was furthest from the stage had buffer issues almost right away, but only for the first 10 minutes or so. The third had issues throughout and wasn't actually able to recover long enough for us to get much usable footage. The last time I ran into the issues almost right away and simply put it away and used my MiniDV instead. Never had an issue with a tape.

Sorry for the long winded reply, I was really in favor of the HDD cammies at first, but having gone through what I did, I would not recommend them to anyone who wants to film a concert.

not a problem at all take as long as you need to reply people have lives outside of the internet so no worries again none of us claim to know everything i was really hooked on the new JVC High Def cam because it had 20x optical zoom and not many others can live up to it, i know Metallifreak27 films with JVC GZ-HD7 he has filmed lots of shows in HD with this camera i do not think he ever had a problem with the hard drive on it, http://www.amazon.com/JVC-Definition-Ca ... B000MANFIC

everyones opinions and experience with the hard drive cameras is most appreciated.

Cj

[maidencolorado]

Before I had issues, I had heard of others going through the same types of things. Having not had it happen to mine, I wondered what they were doing wrong. Then it happened to me. Somehow at the Sabbat show, we were able to piece the whole thing together, even with all 3 cammies having problems.

I may use mine again, if I'm filming in conditions where I know I had success before, or if I'm running multiple cameras and can put one where it isn't critical that I get the footage. Bottom line for me, if it is something that is important for me to have, I'm rolling film.

I'm hearing better things about the flash recorders, but have no personal experience with them.

[Metfan72]

Well the guy I was talking to said that they are better, smaller so it is easier to smuggle into places and overall just said that Flash Memory was better for the conditions I would need it for.

The one I was looking at was a Sony, and it was slim, had the LCD and I think he said had a 16GB capacity per flash card, not entirely sure. But it was cool and easier to handle.

Will do more research, but based on what I am reading here and what I heard yesterday, I may end up with a Flash HD cam.

[maidencolorado]

If you end up getting one, please let me know your experiences. Not that I need another cammie, but I'm curious as to how they are.

Oh, and if you end up with only an LCD, window tint is your best friend...

[Metfan72]

If you end up getting one, please let me know your experiences. Not that I need another cammie, but I'm curious as to how they are.

No problem. More or less getting one to film Metallica and that is not for another 6 months. I know your name from MD, I am Fixxer1313 on there.

[maidencolorado]

Allright, that's cool. Glad to see ya both places

[Hatebreed]

Thanks for all your help so far, it is true what Michael (Lepermessiah) was saying as he told me of the problems directly aafter the show. So will take that into consideration as well.

I thought this would be an easy choice!!!!

[maidencolorado]

You're doing well by researching it now, better to take a look and make an informed choice than jump at a deal and be unhappy