HD captured to SD vs Recorded SD

[C_Copeland]

My brother has a Sony HDR-HC9. I am making a DVD for his business, but I'm not using the footage in HD. I'm capturing it in SD via the iLink cable. Sometimes he has his camera and I need to record some footage, so I was looking at investing in a MiniDV SD camera for myself.

My question is this: if I purchase a standard SD MiniDV camcorder will the footage be virtually the same after capture as the HDR-HC9?

In other words, is footage recorded in HD and captured to the computer in SD better or equal quality as SD recorded footage?

I guess I explained that correctly..I kind of got confused myself typing it out. :P

[edDV]

My brother has a Sony HDR-HC9. I am making a DVD for his business, but I'm not using the footage in HD. I'm capturing it in SD via the iLink cable. Sometimes he has his camera and I need to record some footage, so I was looking at investing in a MiniDV SD camera for myself.

My question is this: if I purchase a standard SD MiniDV camcorder will the footage be virtually the same after capture as the HDR-HC9?

In other words, is footage recorded in HD and captured to the computer in SD better or equal quality as SD recorded footage?

I guess I explained that correctly..I kind of got confused myself typing it out. :P

Complicated issues.

A camcorder has two parts a cam and a corder. Quality varies most on the "cam" end. DV camcorders can be had for $2,000 or $20,000 the main difference being the cam lens, sensors and processing. The recorder part is similar.

The HDR-HC9 can shoot HD or SD. If you shoot HD but downscale in the camera to 720x480i DV, the scaler determines most of the quality compromise. So the question becomes can a cheap HD cam beat a more expensive DV cam? Most of the difference will be in low light where the large glass DV camcorder wins. The HDR-HC9 will beat most cheap DV cams in outdoor light.

[minidv2dvd]

rather than than a cheap minidv sd cam, nobody is going to be satisfied with, you might consider a canon hv30. shoots hd/sd like the hc9, but is a better overall cam, and cheaper to boot.

[mshilly]

One of the best consumer HD Camcorders is the Cannon Vixia HF100 (less than $550)
Small, all solid state, great video. I always capture in HD and store the footage. If I need SD I just convert using something like Super or some other free program.

[edDV]

The advantage of the Canon HV20/HV30 is it will play DV or HDV format tapes from the HDR-HC9. HDV format will be easier to edit vs AVCHD.

[C_Copeland]

Thank you for the replies. I suspected as much, but I wanted to ask the experts here.