[wirelessbitz]

I've owned my panasonic DVC-80 camcorder for several years now. My use of the camcorder is typical family stuff. This has been a good camcorder, but I'm tired of the size and weight and also would like to move to HD. I see that camcorders like my panny are selling on ebay for more than a new HG21.


So...why not sell mine and move to HD? I've compared the specs as much as I can and while the panny has 3x1/3" ccd's vs. the 1x1/3.2" ccd on the HG21, the pixel count is 2Mbit on the HG21 vs. 410k on the panny. So will there be a degradation in colors? What does the 3 ccd buy vs. the HG21?


Is the HG21 audio 16bit 48khz on the two channels? I didn't see that detail in the spec.


So am I missing something here? Should I sell the panny and move to the HG21? And yes, I have a good HD home theater to take advantage of HD.


Any inputs would be appreciated.

 

[osv]

you are planning on editing your footage, right? how fast is the cpu on your computer?


the canon doesn't have a ccd, it has a cmos pickup, google "rolling shutter" to understand the issues with that... the canon might not be as good in low light conditions as the 3-ccd camera.


in general, tho, you'll be blown away by the picture quality of the canon, if you have a nice hd tv, but it's a pretty steep learning curve, as you can see in this forum.

 

[wirelessbitz]

Thanks for the reply. Yep, I'm editing my own footage. I just built my new scream-machine which is a Q9550 overclocked to 3.6 GHz and 4 GB RAM so I don't see a problem there.


Thanks, I remember now the CMOS pickup concept (from my Canon Rebel still camera) and now is a good time to catch up on that technology.


And yes, I have a 56" calibrated DLP so I really only watch HD content.


I just can't believe that I can purchase this HD camera and have my home movies in HD. Sounds like a no brainer especially since I can sell my existing setup for at least as much as this new camera (if ebay is any indication).


My only remaining concern is the label of "consumer" applied to this camera. My dvc-80 was in the "prosumer" category so I can't help but think that I'm stepping down. But of course it certainly does not seem that way. I paid $2k for my dvc-80 new.... So have I stayed away from the camcorder portion of this forum for too long??? No reason to look at spending a couple of grand again for a "prosumer" level camcorder? Geesh, gotta love technology curves and capitalism/competition...

 

[osv]

yeah, i'd say that an overclocked q9550 ought to be enough!! lol, i wish i had that editing setup.


did you use the dvc in manual mode a lot? because these canons have about the best degree of manual controls of any of the consumer cameras, but it's not always easily utilized... i came from a prosumer video camera background myself, canon xl1/xl1s, and i really like this hf11, even with it's drawbacks... i believe that the hg21 has ac3 audio.


you could download some hf11 test footage from dvinfo.net, maybe do a little editing, and play it back on the big tv, maybe with a ps3, if you have that? get a feel for the workflow.

 

[wirelessbitz]

Well, I did use the manual controls in the beginning, but I admit (sheepishly) that after a while I just used the alternating white balance and filters/gain when shooting.... I expect it will be the same way with the HG21...


Yea, I do need to get some demo's from that site (I stream with the xbox360). Are they optimally shot vid's that are not realistic? I don't want to set my expectations too high.

 

[osv]

the hf11 raw footage at dvinfo.net appears to have been shot at a high shutter speed, but it'll give you an idea of what 24Mbps 60i avchd looks like... it's pan and zoom shots of a sprinkler watering the grass.


the "easy" mode button on the hf11 is reputed to work very well.


here is some 1920x1080 60i hf11 footage that i shot and uploaded to youtube as 720p, blow it up to full-screen on your computer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxua4ALWHms&fmt=22

 

[wirelessbitz]

Whoa, nice view on the drag racing cars. Also gave me a look at the pan effects when you scanned across the two billboards. Good looking footage overall - I didn't know that Youtube allowed large files...thanks


I'm definitely going with AVCHD and I want the 24Mbps. The panny is on craigslist as of yesterday... I'm having some second thoughts about the HDD version tho. Having RMA'd more than a few HDD's over the years, I can see this being the single largest failure mode in these cameras a year or two from now...


But I have over 40 miniDV tapes that I have not converted to the computer yet and I don't want to increase that number! So I figure a HDD with easy transfers to the PC is the way to go.


On a side note, H.264 and its variants is the future. I don't work in the video field (my hobby) but I am a wireless networking expert and the compression capabilities of H.264 is clearly required when sending video over networks (wired or wireless). Cisco's telepresence is based on it. MPEG2 is old technology in the life span of technology!


Thanks for your help OSV!