Amazon.com Widgets

Filmmaker One HD Production Diary - Must buy new toys.

February 12, 2008  | Filed under HD

Canon HG-10I am committed to starting up a secondary video podcast for a number of reasons. I want to present some visual material to accompany the Filmmaker One audio show. But I also want to explore distributing HD video through RSS and iTunes.

So, first things first. How do I use this project to justify buying cool new gear?

I already have a Panasonic HVX200 at work, but I don’t want to lug that thing around. That’s too much like work. If this show is a labor of love, lets keep that ratio more love than labor.

That’s why I’ve been eying these cool little Sony and Canon consumer HD cameras, Like the Sony HRD-SR5 and the super-popular Canon HV20. I decided on the Canon HG10 because of the hard drive, the AVCHD format, and I got a killer deal on it. The prices of the Canon cameras are dropping like crazy in the last few days. Newer models were announced at CES, and will start shipping in April.

The new version of the HV20, now called the Vixia HV30 is almost the same camera. It makes a few baby steps with improvements to the LCD and the zoom button, but the innards are almost identical, including its use of MiniDV tape for its HDV recording.

Flip VideoAfter spending some time with solid state recording devices, like our Panasonic and my wifes Flip Video, it is hard to go back to tape. It feel like dial-up.

So I am sacrificing image quality for convenience and going with AVCHD, and the 40GB hard drive inside the tiny Canon HG10. There is an ongoing, unresolved debate over the image quality between HDV and first-generation AVCHD. For my particular project, convenience wins out.

As usual, everything is a trade off.

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Technorati
  • Google
  • Slashdot
  • TwitThis
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit

Comments

2 Responses to “Filmmaker One HD Production Diary - Must buy new toys.”

  1. Ron on February 13th, 2008 10:43 am

    Another issue with an hard drive based camera is backup/archive of your footage. With a tape based system you can save the tapes and have Final Cut recapture them if you need to edit way down the road.

    With an AVCHD system, you have to transfer the files to your computer, and then figure out how to back them up.

    Just a thought.

  2. Tracy on February 13th, 2008 4:23 pm

    We ran headfirst into this issue when we bought our HVX200.

    Our current system is to work with the footage on internal SATA drives or external FireWIre drives. At the completion of a project, we back up everything (field footage, work files, graphics, FCP files, etc.) to external USB2 drives, and put those on a shelf.

    PRO: All the files and footage are easy to access for future use. No need to re-digitize from tape. If you need a video clip, you can find it and start using it minutes. With master tape, it takes much longer. Very convenient, and with the price of drives dropping, quite cost effective.

    CON: It’s a hard drive. Things can happen. We will need to setup redundant, off-site backups as well as regular rotation of media. Drives don’t last forever. But, neither do tapes, really.

    It’s a different way of working, but if one is careful and diligent, it should pay off big-time with a faster, more efficient workflow.

Leave a Reply