Canon HV20 High Definition Camcorder (10X Optical Zoom, 2.7″ Widescreen Colour LCD)
Canon HV20 High Definition Camcorder (10X Optical Zoom, 2.7″ Widescreen Colour LCD)
As a digital still camera the HV20 HD Camcorder excels with all of Canons best digital camera features. Users can accurately focus their shots with nine-point autofocus and then take vibrant 3.1 megapixel images to a miniSD card. While simultaneously recording HD video to tape the HV20 HD Camcorder can capture two megapixel photos to card or these two megapixel images can later be extracted from the video itself allowing users a second chance to snap that once in a lifetime image.
Customer Review: Does what it says on the tin!!!
I jsut sold my Sony HDR FX1 because it was too big. I banked the money and bought this Canon with the proceeds. Its buidl quality isn’t amazing but the quality of the pics really is awesome. The still preformance is good too.
Highly recommended over the Sony similar model which is 200 pounds more.
Very satified.
Customer Review: Good video quality
There are now HD cams available that will record to internal harddisks, but I much prefer this Canon with its tape recording. I find tape to be far easier to store, especially at HD quality, I didn’t want to be buying a new harddisk every 6 months to store the footage. The main disadvantage with tapes of course, is having to rewind and search for scenes.
On the subject of tapes, for anyone new to HDV camcorders, you can actually use plain old mini-DV tapes in this camcorder to record HDV footage, you still get 60 minutes a tape because the footage is now in mpeg2 rather than DV encoding. Actually the camcorder reports 61 minutes when a new mini-DV tape is inserted.
The video light is a bit gimicky. It works ok, but it’s only really just a single LED lamp, so is very weak and only work up to about 6 feet at the most, even then the angle of light is quite narrow, so the frame is light in the middle, dark on the edges.
The photo flash is also just ok, but better than nothing. When taking pictures in dedicated photo mode you have 4:3 format; when in video mode, it’s basically a still capture of the video frame, so is wide-screen.
There’s definitely room for improvements on the ergonomics front, the zoom rocker for example doesn’t fall naturally on your fingertips.
The cam has firewire out, but your software will need to understand HDV in order to capture the footage. The cam doesn’t come with any video editing software. I know Adobe Premiere Elements 3 can handle HDV, not sure what else can.
All in all, I am very happy with this cam, I can live with the ergonomics problem, especially when I know I’m capturing my kids growing up, or the wedding, or the party in the best HD quality I know of.
Compared to my previous “HD” cam, the Sanyo HD1 with the HV20 is like comparing a basic Ford Fiesta with a top of the range Audi A4 - bigger yes it is, but it’s so much nicer.
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Hitachi DZBD7HE Blu-Ray Disc Camcorder - 2.7″ Widescreen LCD 
Amazon Price: ?699.99
Customer Review: blu ray camcorder
hi, i just bought the hitachi dzbd7he blu ray cam i cannot see how anyone can give this cam anything but 5 stars,ive tried every thing on it different light inside shops zoom burned to disc on cam and playback on tv is 1080p well pleased.i done what the other 2 done it is not the camcorders fault it is pixmania as they advertized wrong,the code was for hitachi 300 not the blu ray camcorder,as the 300 was ?245 the blu ray was ?835,it was a mix up on pixmania they was wrong.isent back 3 300 cams they would not send the blu ray i hope this clears up about the blu ray,again i am very pleased ps i dont work for hitachi thanks.
Customer Review: Amazing
I don’t see how anyone can give a bad rating because they had the wrong item delivered. What has that got to do with the camcorder? Anyway this is a great piece of kit, easy to use and takes good Blu Ray 1080 resolution. The menu is easy to navigate and instruction book easy to follow. Would thoroughly reccommend this item.
Panasonic HDC-SD5 High Definiton SD Card Camcorder - Silver 
Amazon Price: ?449.99
Used Price: ?498.99
Canon MD160 Digital MiniDV Camcorder (35x Optical Zoom, 2.7″ Widescreen Colour LCD) 
Canon proudly presents the successor to the MV960: the MD160! This MiniDV camcorder has all of the characteristics of its predecessor plus a higher-performance optical zoom and CCD sensor. The 35x optical zoom lets you film from absolutely any angle and distance, while the 1.07 megapixel CCD sensor makes sure your images come out clear and sharp each and every time. The MD160 also comes with a Digic DV II image processor, which improves the quality of your videos, and a video light and sensitivity of 2 lux, allowing you to film in the dark. It?s also equipped with a stunning wide screen, which gives you complete access to its controls and function, and an ?Easy Touch? function that saves your camcorder?s settings in a matter of minutes. The MD160 is perfect for video editing, as it has DV inputs and outputs so you can easily transfer and edit your video files on your computer, and enables you to add music, faders or more elaborate transitions to your creations. The MD160 MiniDV camcorder will delight video enthusiasts and families alike.
Amazon Price: ?210.00
Customer Review: good but misleading - you need more than just this camcorder
If you’re buying this MD160 camcorder as an entry level machine for the start of your budding filmmaking career, it can be a bit misleading. This is my first camcorder and after much research of price and formats (harddrive/DVD/miniDV) I settled for this as good value for money, one of the best features not listed on many is the ability to transfer back to a tape in the camcorder once you’re done. The camera itself is fairly easy to use out of the box with a lot of features buried in its options if you want to be more specific about what you want to shoot or want to just play around. I haven’t had a lot of time to shoot videos but you’re going to hit the biggest hurdles out of the box before you even start anyway. It should have been more readily listed by Canon that you need to already have more than just this camcorder to use it, it doesn’t come with a miniDV tape it doesn’t come with a firewire cable the software it does come with is for use with the SDcard feature only, which is also disappointing in that you can only record video in 10-30 second bursts. The main features I wanted were the ability to shoot video transfer it to my PC for editing. Not only do you have to buy a separate firewire cable to connect your new camcorder to your PC to be able to do this. Here’s where the DM160 instruction Manuel leaves you in the lurch, pointing you to refer to your own software for how to do this essential feature. Windows XP (home edition) comes with windows movie maker as standard and fortunately it is very easy to use that program to transfer your recordings (in .wma file format) to your PC (and back) with enough options to make low quality youtube videos or full TV standard. Other programs like Nero and Adobe Premiere (stores in .AVI format - large files though) can also be used. So make sure you have one of them and more importantly a firewire connection on your PC before you buy this camcorder. As not knowing this with camcorder out of the box was very disconcerting and disappointing for me.
Customer Review: Pretty good for the dosh!
Opted for the more expensive MD160 instead of MD101 for firewire connection (and a few other things). Good miniDV camcorder for those who don’t want to spend a fortune and don’t require HD. Doesn’t do low-light well but can live with that. Also no separate battery charger (charges attached to camera) so that is unusual, haven’t had a problem as bought additional hi-capacity battery, might be an issue with standard battery if you want to record more than an 90mins or so. Bought Sony Vegas 8 as well and quite happily downloading to a Vista pc via firewire. If you want bells and whistles (and to spend more money) this is not for you!
