I'm in the market for a consumer HD hard drive camcorder in the near future and I'm currently looking at either the Sony HDR-SR1 or the JVC GZHD7. The Sony uses a single CMOS sensor and the JVC uses three CCD sensors. From my own research I guess the consensus is that CMOS is more effecient (ie. power consumtion) but the CCD's have higher performance. Can anyone confirm this through there own experience?

Also, the Sony claims 4.5 hours of HD recording on it's 30GB HDD using AVC (15mbps) and the JVC claims only 5 hours of HD recording on it's 60GB HDD using Mpeg2(30mbps). Why doesn't JVC use AVC or VC1 to get twice the compression ratio, or does Mpeg2 have much better performance than AVC?

Thanks.

I've found the CMOS sensors produce better colors and have virtually no smear. Their only downside that I see is low-light sensitivity. So all in all, I'd give the nod to CMOS. Most cams are going that way now and soon it will be hard to find CCD equipped cams.

I've found the CMOS sensors produce better colors and have virtually no smear. Their only downside that I see is low-light sensitivity. So all in all, I'd give the nod to CMOS. Most cams are going that way now and soon it will be hard to find CCD equipped cams.
is it still the case with one CMOS vs 3CCD?

CMOS is not always worse than CCD. Canon dSLRs, for example, use CMOS and they have the cleanest low-light capture on the market.

I find it hard to believe that a single CMOS sensor would perform better in low light that 3 CCD's but that's just my gut feeling. In general, more sensor surface area will yield better low light performance but I do have to say that I have very little experience with CMOS cameras.

Unless you're going to be setting up lights every time you shoot you can expect to be shooting in adverse conditions or in places where you have no control over the lighting. Granted, I'm just basing this on my own experiences and YMMV.

It's not just the different tech but how it's implement. I think it's best to wait for the reviews to roll in to see what the actual video performance is on these cameras.

And it's not just CMOS vs. 3 CCD either but also AVCHD vs. MPEG2.
Camcorder info claims the Sony HDD cameras are more noisy compared to the HDV Sony's. So it looks like MPEG2 is still the preferred choice over AVCHD and JCV may have just avoided a whole bunch of problems by going the MPEG2 route. For one thing the JVC will have plug ins for iMovie and Final Cut so hopefully we'll see full NLE support across the board.