Weight to quality ratio HD camcorder.

[kirkvideo]

I'm going on a high adventure trip this summer, and need an HD camera that can handle the extreme conditions. Not too heavy but still good quality 720p video.
2 days whitewater rafting (I know I may need a shell)
4 days backpacking at altitude in Colorado.
Concerns: battery life, temperature concerns, media reliability (mini-DV, memory stick, hard drive)
I'd also like it to work well with FCP when I get back.

So far, I've looked at the Sony HDR-SR12 (hard drive), the Sanyo Xacti (SD card), as well as the JVC HD Everio series cameras.
Still don't know what to go with. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Soopafresh]

Just as important, you need to figure out a way to stabilize your footage as you're shooting. It doesn't matter what you use, as long as you can keep your shots steady. Rafting should be a challenge for video stability, plus you risk getting dunked.

I'd use a helmet cam in the raft. There's no place to mount the thing otherwise. Unfortunately, I haven't seen an HD version of that device. Look around.

http://www.helmetcamera.com/kayak.htm

Footage

http://www.hoyttech.com/movies/Kayak(High).mov



Here's a really simple $1 way to stabilize some of your shots outside of the raft.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7cp8mgLz5I


An even better version: http://www.instructables.com/id/String-Tripod/

Battery life is also a big issue, with the 2 choices being:

1- Extra batteries

2- A longggggggggg extension cable

[kirkvideo]

Soopafresh, thanks for the advice and the extension cable comment.
*Update*
I'm now looking at a couple of new cameras: Panasonic HDC-HS9 and the Canon HV20.

[Soopafresh]

The HV20 is a favorite around here. I wouldn't put it in your raft unless you build a Pope-Mobile around it.

It does use HDV tapes.
The battery life is around 1 hr. 2 hrs to recharge.

However

Visual quality is superb (if you keep the camera steady and pan slowly)
The Mpeg2 transport stream it outputs is easily edited by most major brand editing packages.

Sample footage:

http://www.vimeo.com/401533

[edDV]

Think through the complete process flow. Formats that record to HDD or FlashRAM will be convenient in the field but HDD in particualr is dangerous for complete data loss through dunking, theft or drop. Flash is expensive for many hours of recording. You would probably need to carry a laptop with external drive to backup flash and by then you have more bulk than HDV tapes. HDV (MiniDV) tapes are widely available around the world and can be backed up and mailed home to lighten the load.

HDD and flash camcorders use AVCHD or some other variation of high compression MPeg4. You will find the edit process complex and quality less than using HDV MPeg2. Understand fully the editing issues with FCP before you commit to a camcorder format.

[kirkvideo]

Thanks edDV, you're absolutely right, that's the conclusion I've been arriving at recently. The desire to go HDD stems from the use of our other camera (Panasonic HVX200) with an external HDD (FireStore100) via 1394 connection. But using the FS100, we have format options, so I can go straight to a native .mov file that is easy to use with FCP. It looks like I'm just not going to get those kinds of options on a consumer/pro-sumer camcorder.
Looks like the HV-20 is my best option.