Camera Labs

When you come from a DSLR or a high-quality P&S there certainly is now the opportunity to buy a HD-camcorder. You will certainly be more content with a specialized camcorder than with the video-mode of any other camera.
Consider e.g. the Panasonic HDC-SD1. It's a three-chip HD-camcorder that records on SDHC mem-chips. So no moving parts (disk, DVD) for recording apart from that ventilator that cools the HD-chip. This is still a high power task for that generation of camcorders, but in a year, the ventilators will all go away!
The interesting point of the SD1 compared to it's younger brother the SD5 is the size of the sensors and the sound recording: The former being a 3x1/4"CCD which is equivalent to one 1/2.3" CCD area as opposed to the 3x1/6"CCD=1/3.5" CCD of the SD5. The resolution of both sensors is the same although the SD5 outputs a 1920x1080 stream whereas the SD1 constructs a 1440x1080-stream from the sensor. The larger area of the three sensors of the SD1 gave it an acclaimed low-light quality that you seldom find with camcorders
The sound recording of the SD 1 is full 5 channel surround wheras the SD5 only records stereo.
The price? Well the SD1 is now in an excellent price-position at around 700EUR (for HD-recording! incl. 19% you-know-VAT) while the SD5 is 100EUR more expensive at 800EUR. So grab one while they last...

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

hehe.

We use a Sony FX-1E HD 1080i at school, tis pretty darn big, but its good quality. We wanted a Z model though! 1080p plus its got proper size audio jacks for imput from high end mics (think its has 2 or 3 channels for them)

I always thought the movie mode was dreadful on cameras.

Must ask a qustion though - Is the size of a large (FX-1 size) HD camcorders sensor larger than a full frame DSLR? You'd think so with the size of the thing!

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Canon EOS 5DmkII + BG-E6 + Canon EOS 40D + BG-E2N + Canon EOS 33
Canon 17-40 F/4L USM + Canon 24-70 F/2.8L USM + Canon 28mm F/1.8 USM + Canon 70-200 F/2.8L USM IS + Canon 85mm F/1.8 USM
Canon Speedlite 580EX II + Canon Speedlite 540EZ + 2 x Nikon SB-80DX
Cactus V2s Wireless Trigger - 5 x Cactus V2s Wireless Reciever

MY FLICKR!

The FX-1 has 3*1/3 " sensors that add up to 1" sensor. As the designation of smaller sensors is quite dubious I'd assume that the combined sensor-size of the FX-1 is not bigger than on an APS-C sensor - more like a four-thirds one...
And don't forget the price of the FX-1 is 5 times higer than the SD1!

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Yeah i know about the price lol!

Adds up to 1" wtf? So how come it does pretty good shots at 50fps in dark conditions? Fancy processing on the camera? Aperture is F/1.4 on it though so that might help a little.

That also begs the question - does the Aperture work the same on a camcorder as it does a DSLR? I open the aperture, the image gets brighter, but I can't see any noticeable difference in DOF, it still has a massive DOF! Oh why do I confuse my self like this

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Canon EOS 5DmkII + BG-E6 + Canon EOS 40D + BG-E2N + Canon EOS 33
Canon 17-40 F/4L USM + Canon 24-70 F/2.8L USM + Canon 28mm F/1.8 USM + Canon 70-200 F/2.8L USM IS + Canon 85mm F/1.8 USM
Canon Speedlite 580EX II + Canon Speedlite 540EZ + 2 x Nikon SB-80DX
Cactus V2s Wireless Trigger - 5 x Cactus V2s Wireless Reciever

MY FLICKR!

Pardon me for a very novice question here, I have very little knowledge of video gear, but how much recording time could you get on a 4gb SDHC card?

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Leica M9, Nikon D300s, Leica X1, Canon S95, Zero Image 6x9

The highest recording quality is 13-15Mbit/sec that's 1GigByte for 10minutes, so with the latest 8GB SDHC cards you can record 80minutes on a chip in highest HD-quality

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses