I need a new camcorder

[Dolemite]

My current camcorder is a Sony miniDV (HC96) that's starting to crap out. It took some sweet video for a standard def camera, but I know all those moving parts would start to break down sooner or later.

I'm thinking about getting this one. Shoots in HD and standard, 60p and 24p, and it has the audio options my old camcorder lacked, such as headphone and mic jacks (it also has a hot shoe, but my old cam had one too). Plus, it's flash-based, so no more buying tapes.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Sony+-+H...&skuId=2155057

However, I have a few questions. When you shoot in standard def on this camcorder (my hardware isn't quite up to editing full HD at the moment), it saves the video files as mpeg-2 (in other words, compressed). How can I expect that to affect the overall video quality? Since my old camcorder was miniDV, the footage would transfer to my PC as pristine AVI, but I'm hoping since this camcorder is at least 5-6 years newer, that the hardware will produce a cleaner pic and the overall result will be similar in quality to AVI. Also, how does mpeg-2 video hold up in editing programs (in my case, Adobe Premiere Pro)?

Thanks, folks.

[Error]

mpeg2 will be no problem in premiere. the videos you shoot won't be as good as a professional hd camera but they should easily surpass your old camera. a few things to watch with a flash memory camera is you won't be able to capture footage the same way, you'll have to import the entire file from the memory card (you can then mark your ins and outs etc, but most people moving from tape to tapeless find it a bit different as you will no longer have that tape sitting somewhere as a backup should you need to recapture your footage), and secondly flash memory is formatted fat32 unless it's a proprietary format i've never heard of so the maximum any of your shots will be is 4 gigs. you can shoot as many 4 gig clips as you like, depending on how big the card is of course, but none longer than that. depending on the settings you choose to shoot with that will vary how much time your clips can last.

that camera is also equipped with a 32 gig internal hard drive, so that's not bad.

[Dolemite]

Great info. Thanks a lot, Error.

BTW, the way you describe it, importing footage should be pretty much the same with this camcorder as my old one. The program I used to import my Mini DV footage would recognize the time stamps on the video and seperate each clip into a stand-alone file. It will suck not having that physical tape as a back-up, but aside from expensive professional or high-end prosumer camcorders, nobody's making Mini DV anymore. But as long as the footage is equal to (or even better) in quality to my old camcorder and is just as easy to edit as AVI, then we're all good.

[Error]

you can always buy a big hard drive and store your footage on it, but ya, hard drives get kinda cumbersome.

one more thing about the quality of the video, you should be able to ask them to show you a demo unit if they have one handy, and then you could shoot something and play it back to see if it's what you're willing to accept.

and not a problem.

[Dolemite]

Yeah, they have a demo unit that I' ve been playing with, but while the video looks good on the little LCD viewfinder, that doesn't really tell me exactly how it will look when blown up on my monitor. Still, Best Buy has a 14 day return policy (no restocking fee), so it's safe to give it a shot, I guess. Thx.