Trying to decide whether to go with DV or HDD Camcorder. I have read through quite a few threads but still have a couple questions.

Is the AVCHD vs. DV compression loss really that noticeable on a 36" HD tube TV? I think it was like 15mbps for HDD vs 30mbps with HV tapes.

Are the still images taken during the filming of high quality? Do they compare to regular stills taken with the camera?

Thx.

There are many complicated factors involved in whether the video from an HDV camcorder or AVCHD camcorder looks noticeably different on an HD screen. Based on my own experiences with both formats, AVCHD tends to be more likely to have noise in the picture, which is very noticeable on any size screen when it's present. This likely has to do with a combination of the bitrate and the maturity of the format, plus the quality of optics in the camera, more than being an absolute problem of bitrate.

Photos taken with the HD camcorders are pretty close to photos taken with digital cameras with equivalent megapixel ratings.

Photos taken with the HD camcorders are pretty close to photos taken with digital cameras with equivalent megapixel ratings.

but, beware marketing tricks. I've got the sr7, which claims 6.1 megapixel stills when not simultaneously filming. But I think I read somewhere that this is really some odd interpolated measurement of the megapixels, and the actual size is more like 3 mp. I have a 5 mp still camera and it's pictures are much better than the supposed 6.1 mp pictures my sr7 takes.

Thanks for the replies.

I want to go with the best quality video available. My wife however is a photographer and wants the highest quality still images. I'm a bit skeptical of the quality when it comes to snapping stills while filming, but mostly out of ignorance. I appreciate the input you folks provide here.

Thanks for the replies.

I want to go with the best quality video available. My wife however is a photographer and wants the highest quality still images.

if you really want the best of both, unfortunately you're gonna have to buy 2 cameras.