Which Format is Best

Eddie,

HD cams, hands down, is the best way to go.

You can choose from 4 flavors of HD..... HDV-tape, HDD-hard drive, miniDVD, HD memory stick(coming soon).
All have their strong points, etc.
They will cost more than SD cams.
Were you thinking of a HD cam?

MiniDV tape is best. Best for editing. Best for archiving.
I wish it were not so, but it really seems to be the case.

Don't count out your old 8mm. It may still outperform all the others in normal indoor low-light situations. Back when it was made they hadn't quit making low-light camcorders in the consumer low price category. What good is higher resolution if the video is so dark you can't recognize the kids? Find out before you buy, what the restocking fee is if you are unhappy with the new camcorders performance. If you can afford $2300 get the Sony VX2100. It works great in low light and will knock the socks off of your old 8mm camcorder.

Dave

I am going to get the Canon HV20. It is Hi Def and MiniDV. The reviews for it are excellent. I want to get it by August for a trip and the prices have been fluctuating. From the MSRP of $1099 to about $800. I would like to get the $800 deal.

See other threads about this camera in this forum. It sounds like a great camera. I am also waiting to see what editing programs work best. (And I want to be sure it is captured in Hi Def.)

Good luck!

BTW: My feeling about tapes was the same as yours. I thought tape would deteriorate faster than DVDs. But I have read the opposite opinion too many times to ignore. It is good to have both for important material. By recording on tape I can transfer it to DVD and have both. (But be aware that a one hour SD tape holds from 12 to 20 gigs of info. A standard DVD is only 4.7 gigs on a single layer. I don't know for sure how much an HD tape holds. Might be 25 gigs. The same MiniDV tape can be used for SD and/or HD.)

My current camcorder is miniDVD type. My complaints are (1) holds very short footage, (2) can not delete clips (unless I shoot in rewritable media - which is very expensive), and (3) camcorder takes several seconds to get ready after inserting a DVD and finalization also takes a lot of time (some times over 2 minutes). Benefits are (1) very convenient, (2) take very little space, (3) sharing the video is very easy, and (4) jumping between clips during review is quick due to the nature of random access.

I don't think I would ever buy a miniDV tape camcorder. I would seriously consider it if someone made miniDV tape players (like VCRs) and sold them for $75. If the camcorder breaks, how do you play those tapes? To transfer the footage from a tape to computer, you have to spend one minute for every minute of footage. Then, creating a DVD from the footage is no easy task. You can delete unwanted clips from the tape, but it is very hard to reuse that space.

My next camcorder will most likely be hard disc based camcorder. It is one or two steps ahead of minDVD based camcorder. No need to maintain a supply of media. Less moving parts than a DVD or tape based camcorder.

You haven't mentioned SD card based camcorders. They tend to make camcorders very small and easy to carry. Also lack of moving parts (in the recording space) should make the device more reliable.

For me, the hd > hdd combo is all over the competition, so that means I'm going with one of the sonys, sr5 or sr7. I've been reading all the reviews everywhere and it seems clear the canon hv-20 has the best pq. But everything else says go hd > hdd. So I guess in this case I'm willing to sacrifice (tho the sonys will have nearly as good a picture) a little there to get so much. Even with AVCHD, which is now pretty widely supported* anyway. I probably won't do much in the way of editing, which is obviously another reason I'm not hesitant to go for the sony where others may be. We haven't seen any real reviews on the sr5 or sr7 yet so that is anxiously awaited, hopefully they've improved on the sr1 pq? To me tho, the convenience of using it like a digicam (take all the pictures you want and just delete the crap, right on the camera, and do it easily, and no media to swap) is the best. At first I didn't think I wanted to spend much more than 1k, but man the sr7 is tempting, it's got more manual controls and the optical image stabilization (not electronic), plus 60 gigs, that's 8 HOURS of the highest quality hd. Oh man, imagine if the sr8 is ever available in the us (100 gigs), I'd have to draw the line, but it'd be hard! Anyway, the best format depends how you will use it, and for me, since I won't be an aspiring film maker (rather a baby chaser!) it's hdd all the way.

*actual supportedness may vary

I don't think you should rule out SR1. I have also been drooling over these for quite some time. Our local Fry's has them on display. Camcorderinfo period com has a comparison chart of various Sony SR* models. According to that chart, only things that are bad about SR1 are storage capacity and image stabilization. On the contrary, SR1 has many more neat functions that others don't have. For example, manual control ring.

SR1's EIS is not bad at all. I have played with SR1 extensively with full zoom and noticed that image stabilization is much better than some other OIS camcorders. It is hard to believe, but you have to see it to believe it.

Problem with larger hard discs is that we tend to put off taking copies of footage. If something goes wrong with the hard disc, you lose hours of videos and memories.

Having said all the above, I am not particularly keen on buying Sony products. I wish Canon came out with a hard disc based HD camcorder soon.

yeah I've looked at the sr1 too, but I think I'd rather have the bigger hard drive, and a 2nd generation product, than get the manual control ring (and the 3.5" screen, which would be nice!). sr7 has a little dial that is supposed to be similar to the ring, interested to see what the reviews say on that. As for the OIS/EIS, I don't have enough experience with cameras so I'll more or less be going by what the reviews say.

hdd failure: yes it's a concern... personally I know I'll be sure to dump stuff to another drive often. Hopefully someone will figure out how to replace the drives (seems like someone always does!), so if it happens sometime down the road I can upgrade.

I will NOT buy another camcorder that does not record to flash memory card. Check out the panny HDC SD1 (or SD3). That is my dream.

Dave

What we really need is one that records Hi-Def Video to Cards, HDDs & DVDs & can be Recorded / Dubbed to all 3 formats with a street price of $800. Canon are you listening.

As well as sony HDR-CX7/CX6

At the moment I have a Sony 30GB HDD SD camera. Which is a pretty nice camera, but I'd like to move over to HD quality.

Here in the Netherlands the HDR-SR8 is available, but because of the lack of reviews I'm trying to find some info/opinions on the HDR-SR7 (which is the same only with a smaller harddisk).

The Canadian Sony site has a minisite on the HDR-SR7, check it out:
sonystyle.ca/html/multimedia/CAM/HDR-SR7_html_070516/index.html

I hear a lot of people talking about the focus ring of the HDR-SR1 and the dial on the HDR-SR7. I think you can do more with the dial of the HDR-SR7, it just takes some getting used to (just like the zoom handle on top )

Still waiting for a full review by CamcorderInfo.