Karo Margaryan Posted October 31, 2008 Share Posted October 31, 2008 Hello, I am currently in the market for three consumer HD cameras. These cameras will not be used for home videos, I will be creating movies with them. After several days of research I have one camera in mind, the SONY HDR-SR11 / HDR-SR12. The reviews on these cameras are the best from all of its competitors. I am aware of the crappy built in microphone, therefore I will need to purchase three additional mics. My question is does anyone have any experience with these cameras and if you can give me some feedback I would appreciate it. Also I was wondering if there are any other consumer HD cameras that you would recommend. Karo Margaryan Glendale, CA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Buick Posted October 31, 2008 Share Posted October 31, 2008 As far as I know the Sony should have satisfactory image quality, Canon's AVCHD cameras are probably a lot better in the way of manual functions (that was never Sony's strong point). If you're planning to use these cameras professionally AVCHD isn't such a good choice. They still aren't in the league that the HDV camcorders are in, AVCHD isn't a professional HD codec, and I believe editing programs that will take AVCHD are hard to come by, it'll certainly require a very powerul computer. The Canon HV30 or Sony HDR-HC9 are HDV camcorders in the same price range, and they'll both produce picture that'll leave the SR11/12 in the dust. I'm sorry if that comes as inconvinient news, but I'm afraid no DVD, Solid State, or Hard Drive camcorder can currently match good ol' tapes. But if you really must have AVCHD than stick with what you think is the better camera overall. Take care! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodrigo Pio Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 (edited) As far as I know the Sony should have satisfactory image quality, Canon's AVCHD cameras are probably a lot better in the way of manual functions (that was never Sony's strong point). If you're planning to use these cameras professionally AVCHD isn't such a good choice. They still aren't in the league that the HDV camcorders are in, AVCHD isn't a professional HD codec, and I believe editing programs that will take AVCHD are hard to come by, it'll certainly require a very powerul computer. The Canon HV30 or Sony HDR-HC9 are HDV camcorders in the same price range, and they'll both produce picture that'll leave the SR11/12 in the dust. I'm sorry if that comes as inconvinient news, but I'm afraid no DVD, Solid State, or Hard Drive camcorder can currently match good ol' tapes. But if you really must have AVCHD than stick with what you think is the better camera overall. Take care! :) Hey Matthew Funny, but I just asked you something related to that in other topic :P Anyways... I was considering purchasing the HDC-HS300 for a more professional use with a DOF adapter (Letus35 mini), a steady, a shoulder mount and a few more things. Do you think AVCHD is still a bad choice for editing? I've heard of some of the popular NLEs (such as Premiere and FCP) supporting it through addins or updates. I've got a quad-core with 4gb RAM, do you think it's enough for editing AVCHD? Edited April 30, 2009 by Rodrigo Pio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Peter J DeCrescenzo Posted April 30, 2009 Premium Member Share Posted April 30, 2009 ... I was considering purchasing the HDC-HS300 for a more professional use with a DOF adapter (Letus35 mini), a steady, a shoulder mount and a few more things. Do you think AVCHD is still a bad choice for editing? I've heard of some of the popular NLEs (such as Premiere and FCP) supporting it through addins or updates. I've got a quad-core with 4gb RAM, do you think it's enough for editing AVCHD? Hi Rodrigo: AVCHD is widely used, including in professional productions. The quality of AVCHD video varies depending the capabilities of the camera which creates it -- as is the case with any other digital video format. AVCHD is capable of high quality HD video. AVCHD is supported by a wide variety of modern video editing software -- such as iMovie, Final Cut, Premiere and many others -- running on appropriately-configured computers. In general I'd recommend working with the software's most-current updated version. Information concerning recommended minimum system configurations is readily available on each editing software developers' websites. In addition to the cameras you've already considered for your project, you may wish to investigate Panasonic's new Lumix DMC-GH1 Micro Four Thirds interchangable lens digital still & HD video camera. The GH1 has just begun shipping in Japan, and it's supposed to be available elsewhere by June. It's early days yet, but the GH1's features are intriguing for certain applications. I've started a GH1 thread here on Cinematography.com: http://www.cinematography.com/index.php?showtopic=37701 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodrigo Pio Posted May 5, 2009 Share Posted May 5, 2009 In addition to the cameras you've already considered for your project, you may wish to investigate Panasonic's new Lumix DMC-GH1 Micro Four Thirds interchangable lens digital still & HD video camera. The GH1 has just begun shipping in Japan, and it's supposed to be available elsewhere by June. It's early days yet, but the GH1's features are intriguing for certain applications. I've started a GH1 thread here on Cinematography.com: http://www.cinematography.com/index.php?showtopic=37701 Hey Peter Tnx for the info on AVCHD. And I'll definitely check on the GH1, I'm particularly interested in 35mm SLRs with movie capabilities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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