Looking for Specific Camcorder Suggestions Please Help!

[poopandflush]

Hey NS I was wondering if some of the knowledgeable Filmers on NS could help me pick a new HD Camcorder.

Things you Should Know:

Budget: up to $1200

Good video quality for uploads to Youtube, Facebook, and Vimeo

Want Good Slowmotion Capability

Something that records to HDDV or Solid State (which is better??????? +++K)

Focus Ring or the ability to add a focus ring.

Handle optional

Canon HV30? I really need some suggestions.

Any Help or Specific Suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks

 

[aoe]

Well let's start:

- Good video quality for uploads. Well, the upload settings will be handeled in your editor, so I think you can narrow this to good video quality in general.

- Good slo-motion. Here you are going to want a camera that can do 60fps progressively. This is probably your biggest hurdle. Some cams do 720 x 60p but almost no consumer cams do 1080 x 60p (except Sanyo FH1 and hd2000). So the questionsis, do you need 1080p?

If so the Sanyos are your only option if slo-mo is very important to you. If you're fine with 720p then I believe there may be a couple out there but I believe most are prosumer cams the cheapest being the HMC40 which is about $2g.

Your other option is to to get a 60i cam and do some post work for slo-mo. Not nearly as good as native 60p but it'll do the job if you have the right software (twixtor and others).

- I would go solid state for a couple reasons. No need to capture, better with vibration. Most solid state cameras capture in an MPEG4 format (AVCHD, H264,etc) and editors don't play nice with these formats so you usually need to transfer to an intermediate editing codec. All in all, there a pros and cons to both, but I feel the solid state is worth it.

-Focus ring. The hfs10 or hfs100 both have focus rings and are great cams. The Panasonic's HDC-HS300 and Sony's HDR-XR520V have focus rings that are also able to control other functions which is nice.

- Not aware of any handle cams around that range.

 

[dergblerp]

1200 is pretty low baller for those specs. Like the post above mentioned, the closest you'll get is the panasonic HMC40 at ~$2,000, or maybe the Canon 7D, which is a DSLR with a video mode. At $1200 your in this awkward place where you can either buy a really nice used Standard Def. camera like the DVX100b, or a consumer HD camera like an HV40 or HFS100. Nono of these do slow-mo of any kind.