You want an opinion after you bought one?I for one believe you get what you pay for in the HD camcorder field.Your Samsung records to memory card. Personally, I would always go for something that records to mini-DV tape. Better transfer rates and quality, less errors.It's NOT full HD, it's only 720p.
Small cameras tend to crap out in low light. Also the formats tend to be heavily compressed. Just make sure that your editing system likes the format specced.
I still consider tape to be gold standard. And there's a lot of top end video kit that uses tape in preference to solid state. It will take over in the end, but not yet.Yes, 720p is HD just not full quality. And I didn't want to start getting into 1080i etc etc discussing a camcorder that doesn't have it Quote from: DubDom on October 05, 2008, 01:47:58 amSmall cameras tend to crap out in low light. Also the formats tend to be heavily compressed. Just make sure that your editing system likes the format specced. Again, you get what you pay for. But if it's got fully manual settings you can get around lighting issues to a degree (using a tripod).
Honestly Do some research and you'll find that all the current 1080 deliverables are some form of interlaced format, it's a complex argument, but I think that only digital cinema formats run at progressive rates high enough to return this quality. They all claim 1080p but it's actually not true progressive. I actually think that the codec issue can be a bit of a nightmare. Look for the best chip, the best lens and the lowest compression.
Also, I have just bought another HV20 because I gave mine to my brother. I paid less than £300 delivered.