Should I bother upgrading to HD?

A

AlphaCarbon

Member
Hey guys,

Im at the point where I bought my camera long enough ago that I can afford another camera again.

I am debating upgrading to HD and buying the HV40 or sticking with SD and picking up some new lens and mics for my 2 GS-500's...

I don't do film for a living, I shoot a video webcast, live events and conferences in my field (for a enough money to cover my time editing) and each summer I shoot a short that I enter into various indie film festivals. from time to time I lend my equipment (my crane, lighting kit, mics, ect..) to my friends who are actually in the field but i guess that shouldn't factor in here.

since my webcast ends up on the net compressed anyway, would i really benefit from HD? i use blip.tv and vimeo for my video hosting.

any advice in this area would be greatly appreciated,
thanks.
 
I just read through a review of the new Panny HS300 (AVCHD camera) at camcorderinfo.com. You might want to give that one a good look before making a decision. From what I just read, it sounds like a dynomite consumer camera.

With a budget of $1400, you might consider holding out for a prosumer HD camera. Sony has reintroduced the FX7 at a list price of $1999 (shouldn't be long until street prices are lower), and I've seen used FX1s sell used for as little as $1600 recently.
 
i just took a look at the HS300, it has some nice features including (if im not mistaken) a headphone jack that can be used at the same time as the mic jack (something my GS500s are missing)...

i also looked at the cannon HF S10... both these cameras have features I really want at the price thats expectable.

however, and i hope you guys can help me with this. I really like tapes cause I can buy new tapes, shoot with them, and store the footage on the shelf. if i go harddrive or flash, how will i be able to store all the footage for the future in case i need it. just keep buying harddrives? sounds expensive... options im not seeing? maybe a HS300 miniDV version or something? not to mention harddrive compression, i use adobe CS4 to edit (premiere and AE) and i heard i would have to recompress to get it into those programs. will I lose quality with 3-4 compressions down the line? (1 on camera, 1 into adobe, 1 on output, 1 to vimeo)

thanks for all help and advice...
 
You can burn original footage to DVD for way less than the cost of tape. Burning to BluRay can be less expensive than tape now too.

A miniDV holds approx 12GB. A real cheap tape costs about $2.50 (with premium tapes costing considerably more).

You can put about the same amount of data onto 3 single layer DVD disks for about 50-60 cents (buying bulk packages of 100 DVD disks). (Currently, when I capture a tape, I back it up that way.)

You can put two tapes worth of footage on a single layer BluRay disk, which can be bought for as little as $3/ea now (in bulk packages of 50 disks). You can get BluRay burners for under $200 nowadays.

Also, shooting AVCHD on an HS300 actually results in a bit less data to store, per hour of footage, than HDV. If I recall correctly, the highest bitrate with the HS300 is 17mbps, while HDV is 25mbps.

Actually, at $80 a pop for 1TB hard drives, the cost per gig is less than half of that with the cheapest tape too. You can fit the equivalent of about 80 miniDV tapes on a 1TB drive (about the equivalent of tapes costing a buck each).
 
HV40, HFS10, HFS100, now bested by the Panny HS300

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/ratings.php#

If you want a more alternative solution with shallow DOF you should consider the GH1 at less than $1500.
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/forumdisplay.php?f=175

Don't worry about playback medium. I've shot HD for a year, had 3 shorts in several festivals, selling them now for HD Cable. I've only ever screened at the festivals in SD, Cable will get a hard drive transfer when the sale is inked. Later you can get a bluray burner or whatever, SD DVD's from HD look great even on my 46" LCD.
 
I was talking about the economics of saving/backing up original footage with DVD or BluRay disks, not for delivering/displaying edited footage. That's a different subject.
 
Yep. My comment wasn't totally in response to yours, just touched on blue ray as you brought it up.

I do find hard drives a bit more expensive than you mentioned though due to the fact that I'm on a Mac which equals external, and ideally FW 800.
 
thanks robert. burning is option then.

i want thank you all for your help. now i just need to decide between the HF S10 and the HS300. but that is another topic for another day, my main point of this thread was to figure out if switching to HD was worth it video wise and the hassle of giving up my lovely miniDV tapes. which you have convinced me both would be a good idea.

thanks again for everything
 
I'd urge you to consider the GH1 as well. May or may not meet your needs. Has some limitations that video cams don't, but has many features like controllable shalllow DOF as well and more manual and professional controlas than any video camera in the price range.
 
I wish.

Only pro towers with modifications I think (because they are moddable) but none come capable & you can't mod the less expensive ones as far as I know.
 
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