Just from taking a quick look at camcorderinfo's first look review, I'd say that the HD7 looks like a solid camera. I haven't heard of the codec it uses and it sounds decent, but be forewarned that it's based on MPEG-2, which can be difficult to edit.

The main problem I see with consumer-level hard drive camcorders is that the drive is not swappable, so there's an upward limit to the amount of video you can shoot before you need to capture. Still, this can apparently record up to 5 hours of video to its drive (I remember back when HD camcorders first came out they could only record 45 minutes in one go). Convenience also needs to be considered. I shoot HDV on MiniDV tapes, and I'm always longing for a tapeless solution, because it would be so much easier to capture.

All things considered, my next camera will probably be tapeless, and if this camera had been around and affordable to me when I was shopping for a high-def camera, I probably would have bought this instead of my Sony HC1.

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Andrew Gingerich
Exploding Goldfish Films
Check out my vodcast on iTunes: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=96931870
and my blog at http://www.exgfilms.com

quote:

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Originally posted by agingeri

Just from taking a quick look at camcorderinfo's first look review, I'd say that the HD7 looks like a solid camera. I haven't heard of the codec it uses and it sounds decent, but be forewarned that it's based on MPEG-2, which can be difficult to edit.

The main problem I see with consumer-level hard drive camcorders is that the drive is not swappable, so there's an upward limit to the amount of video you can shoot before you need to capture. Still, this can apparently record up to 5 hours of video to its drive (I remember back when HD camcorders first came out they could only record 45 minutes in one go). Convenience also needs to be considered. I shoot HDV on MiniDV tapes, and I'm always longing for a tapeless solution, because it would be so much easier to capture.

All things considered, my next camera will probably be tapeless, and if this camera had been around and affordable to me when I was shopping for a high-def camera, I probably would have bought this instead of my Sony HC1.

-----------------
Andrew Gingerich
Exploding Goldfish Films
Check out my vodcast on iTunes: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=96931870
and my blog at http://www.exgfilms.com

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Wow you are the best person to ask then...because I was looking at picking up the Sony HC1, until I saw the JVC. The only thing that kept me from getting the camera, was the fact that is was tape-less. I have never used a hard-drive on a camera before. So I think I am going to look at the JVC again. One last question, how do you like the HC-1.

I like the HC1 just fine, except that it's rather noisy in low-light. I'd say that HDV is the most tried-and-true format for consumer-level HD video, the only problems are that A) it uses a tape instead of a hard drive, and B) the compression scheme it uses can make it difficult and resource-intensive to edit. If you go for the JVC you'll get rid of problem A, but because you'll be using MPEG-2 instead of MPEG-4 (what HDV uses), you may be making problem B worse. I would recommend that you try to get your hands on some footage captured from the camera and practice editing with it before you decide to buy it.

-----------------
Andrew Gingerich
Exploding Goldfish Films
Check out my vodcast on iTunes: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=96931870
and my blog at http://www.exgfilms.com