SD v's HDD camcorders.........whats best?

Felix Da Housecat · 3 Jul 2008 at 20:10

I'm looking to buy a camcorder within the next 7-8 weeks for my holidays and i'm not sure which to go for.

My budget is around £250 - £300 and the ones I have shortlisted are:

Canon FS100 SD Camcorder
Sony DCR-SR55E HDD Camcorder

I've held both models and I like the smaller unit of the Canon, but the Sony has a larger drive above the 32GB max of the Canon but is a fair bit larger.

I've checked the Canon and Sony sites and looked for reviews, but does anyone have either of these or know if SD has poorer video quality compared to HDD units (thats what i was told today) somthing to do with writing speeds to the card v's hard drive.

Whats the pros and cons of each model?

Thanks in advance

Pug · 4 Jul 2008 at 21:06

just a fyi - i have bought (today(!) a Sanyo HD1000 camcorder/hybrid. Its too early to say for sure what i think of it, but first impressions are that i am VERY pleased with the output.

This model does 1080i/60fps, or lower (including 720p/60fps or 30 fps. It records onto SD media (16GB card was £38 - does 3h). This model was £330, but its little brother (HD700) is available for £220 and does 720p. the HD1000 has 10x optical zoom, whereas the HD700 has 5x optical zoom.

i cant comment but battery life is meant to be good as well (around 3hours) - we shall see.

Just making you aware!

lord filbuster · 5 Jul 2008 at 02:13

The storage medium won't affect the quality, the write speed of SD is more than enough to record even HD footage in real time.

rlm · 5 Jul 2008 at 07:55

lord filbuster said:
The storage medium won't affect the quality, the write speed of SD is more than enough to record even HD footage in real time.

Wasn't there a big difference in quality though between miniDV, DVD and HDD though because of the compression used? I assume there is no difference in compression between HDD and SD camcorders then if there is no difference in quality? Its something I had wondered too when thinking about buying one.

chrispystix · 5 Jul 2008 at 07:58

rlm said:
Wasn't there a big difference in quality though between miniDV, DVD and HDD though because of the compression used? I assume there is no difference in compression between HDD and SD camcorders then if there is no difference in quality? Its something I had wondered too when thinking about buying one.

Thats my view too. SD or HDD is easy for quick files but if you want to do any editing mini DV is best because it is uncompressed.

Pug · 5 Jul 2008 at 09:02

yeah, from the very little time i have had with it my Sanyo HD1000 produces stunning video at 720p, no exageration, but it produces it in the mp4/h.264 format, which requires a hefty pc for editing. 1080 is just massively worse too...

That said, i wont edit - i'll just stick the SD card into my PS3 and play it, or burn to a DL-DVD and play it on the PS3.

startrek2 · 5 Jul 2008 at 09:30

the ps3 can play unedited M2T files from like a memory stick.

(as from DV tape on HDD camera)