Need help choosing a new camcorder

[egold]

Hi Everyone

I currently have a sony trv 480 HI8 which has been fine for transferring my 8mm and hi8 onto the computer.

computer specs are:

AMD 5200 dual core 2.6
800 fsb
6 gigs ram
ati 4650 512 gig's ram
2 650 gig sata HD
Win7 64

I do not have a ps3 or blueray, my tv is a older samsung 60" rear projection 720P 1080I

I use corel x2 pro but can buy any editing program I would need.


I would like to upgrade to HD. I've been looking at a refurb canon hf10 499.00 I also have been reading good things about sanyo HD200 which is in the same price range.

I will eventually upgrade to blue ray but I would need a 1080p tv so would need to upgrade that also,, expensive.

I wanted a sd card camcorder just because of the size but now Im reading my computer might not be able to edit nor render the avchd files and I dont want to build another one. This one meet all my needs now.

What would you recommend?
Are there good low indoor light camcorders that record in SD and HD and if I did record in HD would I be able to watch on my 1080i tv

I know alot of questions but have always had great answers from these kind of forums

Thanks

Evan

[redwudz]

Your computer should be able to edit and encode the AVCHD files, but it might be a bit slow at it. Editing HD video is a PITA, but you could convert it to a more 'edit friendly' format, especially if your final format is going to be SD or a DVD.

The HD camcorders are about the 'norm' at present and SD camcorders are getting a bit harder to find. I've been happy with my JVC Everio HD camcorder. Having a 60GB hard drive is preferable for me, instead of spending a fortune on SD cards. But it does have a micro SD slot. Transfer to my PC via USB 2.0 is fairly fast.

Most HD camcorders have fairly poor low light performance, that seems to be a product of the higher resolution.

But others here may be able to give better advice.

And welcome to our forums.

[egold]

Thanks for the reply

I'm glad to hear I the computer's ok for avchd files. Knowing I'll need to render down to sd do you think I should still look at the canon hf10 or something on a tape basis that does both like the canon hv20 or 30. The only thing is I reallyt wanted something small.

Thanks

[danno78]

Canon HV30, HV40 are pretty good in low light. Both record on regular MiniDV tapes in HDV (mpeg2 compression) format. HDV can be edited with less cpu power. With these camcorders you can record in SD or HDV and convert on the fly HD tapes in SD (DV format).

Later edit

The only thing is I reallyt wanted something small.

Panasonic TM300, TM350 can be a good alternative (low light and small) but is more expensive and is AVCHD. I think these can shoot only in HD format.

[Soopafresh]

I think that CPU is going to be too slow for AVCHD editing. It'll stagger through HDV editing as well I'm afraid. Look into NeoScene software to convert the files into easy to edit AVI format. You can buy the software discounted for $100.

Go to http://www.vimeo.com and do a search for your camcorder model and include Low Light in the search. See if the videos meet your expectations.

HV30 Low Light
Flip Ultra HD Low Light
HF10 Low Light
etc

[egold]

Thanks for the reply,

I was kind of thinking that my computer was going to be to slow. If I want HD as long as the camcorder does HD I'll need to convert to avi? My computer would be fast enough to edit in avi then burn from my editing program?

The converted avi files would be huge wouldn't they and would those avi files be in HD or would they be converted to standard def.

I'm really new at this lol

Do you think I should even be looking at a HD camcorder or just buy a standard def one and would a standard Def one be better than my HI8 that I have now?

What do you think my best option is?

Thanks

Evan