Thread: I need to get a video camera - not bike specific. Can somebody help me cut through?

I have had a Sony HDSR-11 for a while now. The plus' are great features and lots of memory. You can use the camera on any TV but it does best with HD TV's. you can use the std cables or an HDMI cable. We have a 50 inch 1080 and a 30 something inch 720. The camera produces great images on these screens. You can take some great pics with the camera too, they are in the wider screen format. I send all the stills to a 2 gig memory card stored in the camera-the video goes to the 60 gig hard drive. The software Sony provides is good for me-I can make some nice DVD's with it complete with titling etc. The problem is software lock in. All the DVD's you burn can only be viewed through a Sony Blue Ray disc player, thats it. The good thing is if you can use the camcorder as your player and it stores more than any DVD will. Deleting and editing is easy enough, battery time could be a little better. Overall I'm happy-I knew what I was getting into. The videos of the kids are great. It seems like you can almost reach out and touch them. Also it does have true 5.1 sound. Hope that helps

How about uploading to this forum, the magazine or Youtube? What format is required to do that, and can the output from the Sony be converted to that format?

( mov mp3 mp4 wmv , I think)

Originally Posted by CBRVFR

How about uploading to this forum, the magazine or Youtube? What format is required to do that, and can the output from the Sony be converted to that format?

( mov mp3 mp4 wmv , I think)

Cant help you with that-never tried it-plus with Sony being so proprietory with AVCHD I'm sure it would be difficult to share

No-brainer buys: Six camcorders you won't regret - CNET Reviews

I haven't bought one for a few years, so I'm not completely up to date, but the above resource may help. The upload part is pretty easy. I can help you with that once you settle on the camcorder that will best fit your needs.

Interesting and tough question (I considered an upgrade but likely will not)

First HD is becoming more common and certainly is the future. On this front I would lean HD just for longevity. The downsides are more capacity used and you lose some ease of use. However more and more s/w handles HD and if you are running a current OS I am betting you are fine.

I dislike the HD and DVD versions. However for ease of use the DVD might be nice for you. This also gives infinite storage which the HD lacks. Nice for long vacations with blank DVD easily available. The downside is write once on a DVD.

I like the flash systems but with many you have storage issues. This Canon is appealing though as it has built in and removable flash. Personally I prefer Canon to Sony on picture quality (I have had both)

Of course the last question is budget... You could go low def and save money but again I would avoid HD and flash is harder to find in non-HD


Oh and pretty much everything is worthless for bike use now For that you need bike specific in my opinion

I just looked and you can covert quickly to wmv or mpeg2-just havent tried it yet. There are a lot of choices out there-good luck

I am not a tech junkie, but I had a Sony and returned it due to all the crap I had to install on my computer, even then I could not get it to work.

I ended up buying a JVC and it does what i need it to do. Nothing fancy and not real expensive either.

OK - I was spending too much time thinking about this so I pulled the trigger on a JVC GZ-MG630.

JVC announced today three new camcorders in its standard definition hard drive series, the "Everio G Series." The GZ-MG630 ($429 MSRP), GZ-MG670 ($479 MSRP), and GZ-MG680 ($549 MSRP), all feature a 40x zoom and 1/6-inch 800,000-pixel CCD, as well as a number of new features for data management and sharing.

The GZ-MG630 is equipped with a 60GB hard drive, for over 14 hours of video in the highest quality. All three camcorders can expand their recording space with a microSDHC slot.

Included software allows video clips to be easily outputted to iTunes and YouTube. Last year, only a single model included YouTube upload software. Clips can also be edited in-camera to achieve YouTube's 10-minute limit. The included software, which is PC-only, also features a new calendar view of all the recorded clips for faster sorting.

Hopefully it won't suck.

Thanks, all!

the blue one?

ohh pretty. Wanna mount it on my tank for a 160 run

All the DVD's you burn can only be viewed through a Sony Blue Ray disc player, thats it.

Whoa, now that's BS as far as I'm concerned. No way I'd buy a camera with that limitation. My dad takes a lot of family get-to-together video and burns it to send to those not in attendance. That would mean everyone in the family would all have to buy a certain player. I can't understand how anyone would put up with that. To me that's almost like having a bike that won't start if you install anything but Bridgestone tires.

that's not accurate. The software that comes with the sony can export to mpeg or wmv.

Originally Posted by figment

that's not accurate. The software that comes with the sony can export to mpeg or wmv.

Also, there is no bluray burning software, it's AVHD, which will play in a bluray player @ higher res than ordinary DVD.