Saw another post regarding the HV20's problems with in-car shooting. So, does anyone have experience with shooting other HD cameras in-car? What's the best one for the job.

I really want an HD camera but in-car shooting is going to be a lot of what I use it for.

Thanks!

I'm wondering the same thing. I want an HD camera too for an in-car camera. I'm looking at either the Panasonic HDC-SD3 or Sony HDR-CX7. Neither of them are released in the US yet. Should be within a month.

I have a buddy that does sky diving (with helmet cam) and he says the same thing about the HV20, not good for fast motion and mounting. The end result looks like he$$. He uses a Sony HC3 and swears by it. Stay away from the HDD and DVD cams. They don't like to be bounced around.

I have a HV20 and in my 1st tests, http://www.socalspeedzone.com/incartest/incartest.html, it did not do well on the car mount that I have set up (replaces the headrest of the passenger seat). My SD cameras did much better from it. I have a new mount coming (mounts on the dash) that I hope will be better.

scsz, that's almost painful at times. I'm curious to see if your other mount improves things.

Anyone have experience with the HC7 in-car?

Wow, that video has kind of a jiggly effect in which the dashboard, frame and rearview mirror all looked as if they were loosely connected by rubber. If that's an artifact of the rolling shutter, maybe increasing the shutter speed a bit would help?

Wow, that video has kind of a jiggly effect in which the dashboard, frame and rearview mirror all looked as if they were loosely connected by rubber. If that's an artifact of the rolling shutter, maybe increasing the shutter speed a bit would help?

Did a little in car hand held test and it was fine. Will do some more testing once I get the other mount. I think the OIS is not able to handle high vibrations.

scsz, that's almost painful at times. I'm curious to see if your other mount improves things.

Anyone have experience with the HC7 in-car?

I have been looking at getting the HC5 or HC7 for shooting skydiving video.
I have "heard" that the HC7 does not do well for shooting freefall video 120+ however filming canopy relative work it did a great job. The HC5 did not have any problems while shooting freefall video.
Hope this helps.

was looking to get 1 for AutoX/track days. Good thing I saw this thread ..

scsz, can you post links to the two camera mounts?

After looking into the HC5 I found a reference to it being electronic stabilization so that could account for the better performance.

Unfortunately, everything else I read makes it sound like the video quality with the HV20 is light years better than the HC5.

So, I might end up going with the HV20 anyway and just try to find a softer mount for it to soak up some of the vibration.

BitBass, this is the mount I just got, a StickyPod (http://www.stickypod.com/osc/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=32&osCsid=edc9876994d7e0055a8aaf358a5abef1). Unfortunately is does not fit my dash well (I have a Nissan 350Z). Tried a quick test mounted to the passenger window and the camera did not do well. I am going to try some different spots and configurations. My other mount I made myself and replaces the headrest on the passenger seat. I will take some pictures when I have a chance. Right now I feel that for in car video I'm just going to have to keep using my SD cameras, unless I will be a passenger where I can hand hold the camera then I would use the HV20.

Here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnlLjGXbOds) is some video from my HDR-SR1 being handheld in a BMW M5 on the Carolina Motosports Park track. Unfortunately I had to downconvert it to lower-res mpeg2 for posting on YouTube, but it should give you a good feel for the stability and motion capabilities of the camera. I've also used it for skiing, baseball instructional video and other sports applications with very good results. The newer models should only be better.