Picked up a JVC GZ-MG20U. It's one of the "tapeless" 20GB hard drive.

Haven't done much wth it yet. Just a few minutes here and there. I plan on doing all of the present opening tomorrow morning with our son.

I went with this type because the ones with mini-DVD's just seem a little too prone to skipping or something. Plus the DVD's don't hold much.

Same with the tapes.

I like this because as far as I can tell it's true digital. Plus it records in mpeg2 format so it dosn't need to be converted or anything.

I have't pulled anything off it yet but it uses USB 2.0 (not Firewire). Most of the tape camera's seem to require a Firewire connection.

Anywho... I'll throw up some more review as I get a little more use out of it tomorrow.

Merry Christmas everyone.

I was considering getting a camcorder and looking at the hard drive models too.

Let us know how it works out

<wondering how long it's going to take pathfinder74 to start making homemade pr0n movies>

Have fun downloading it to your PC when you want to save it.
Then the PC goes boom.
Call me an old fart, I'll stick to my DV tape.

Some of the prosumer miniDV camcorders can have a hard drive docked onto it through the rear firewire port (and it usually has its own power supply, and records FULL uncompressed format unlike the JVC which is mpeg)...just like the pro ones (nowadays capturing is not really "video capturing", but sending the digital information from the slow tape through the firewire)  I like the various JVC models including the compact flash/microdrive and the dedicated hard drive.  I wish they also had a quick swap hard drive model...

My new point and shoot camera shoots 640x480 30fps video for about 1.5 hours on high quality or 2.5 on medium quality onto a 2GB SD card with at least Ultra II speed.

Quoted: Some of the prosumer miniDV camcorders can have a hard drive docked onto it through the rear firewire port (and it usually has its own power supply, and records FULL uncompressed format unlike the JVC which is mpeg)...just like the pro ones (nowadays capturing is not really "video capturing", but sending the digital information from the slow tape through the firewire)  I like the various JVC models including the compact flash/microdrive and the dedicated hard drive.  I wish they also had a quick swap hard drive model... My new point and shoot camera shoots 640x480 30fps video for about 1.5 hours on high quality or 2.5 on medium quality onto a 2GB SD card with at least Ultra II speed.

they have newer ones but this is what it looks like to those that are going huh?

technically if you have firewire you could have the remote hard drive mounted on your belt and use it instead of the tape....kinda hodge-podge, but if you want video ASAP without waiting to download it....the hard drives can be HUGE with 3-4 hour battery life, etc - they are FULL UNCOMPRESSED data which is much better than any MPEG encoding....


you can learn more at bhphoto.com

I'm looking forward to the review.

cool! i just got a cheapo jvc gr-d270us. its my 1st cam corder and its miniDV.

Quoted: Quoted: Some of the prosumer miniDV camcorders can have a hard drive docked onto it through the rear firewire port (and it usually has its own power supply, and records FULL uncompressed format unlike the JVC which is mpeg)...just like the pro ones (nowadays capturing is not really "video capturing", but sending the digital information from the slow tape through the firewire)  I like the various JVC models including the compact flash/microdrive and the dedicated hard drive.  I wish they also had a quick swap hard drive model... My new point and shoot camera shoots 640x480 30fps video for about 1.5 hours on high quality or 2.5 on medium quality onto a 2GB SD card with at least Ultra II speed. they have newer ones but this is what it looks like to those that are going huh? www.dvinfo.net/canon/articles/tanaka/fs3-raw/Beauty.jpg

Yup I have one of those on my big DVCAM camcorder, it rocks!

Quoted: Have fun downloading it to your PC when you want to save it. Then the PC goes boom. Call me an old fart, I'll stick to my DV tape.

I don't  just keep it on the HD.  I burn it to DVD, plus it's still on the miniDV tape.

One of the features I liked was the S-Video connection. Of course, the retard that I am I always forget S-video doesn't output sound, so I'll still need to use the RCA cables it came with.

It also came with a video editting software package. Again, I'll thrown down a review of it as I use it. I don't know how much after effects kind of stuff I'll be doing at first. Probably just titles/credits and scene transitions.

It has a light on it, but it's not very impressive. Looks like it would be good for doing Blair Witch-type outside video, but inside an already lighted room it doesn't do squat. There is no "slot" to add a better light onto it either.

The menu is pretty simple to use. There is a little directional pad kind of like something you'd find on a cell phone.

The zoom (25x) is pretty good. Some of the tape camera have something like an 800x zoom. Sounds good on paper, but when I played around with those in the store you lose a lot of clraity and stability (which I know could be fixed with a tripod), but it's probably more than I 'd ever need.

Quoted: Have fun downloading it to your PC when you want to save it. Then the PC goes boom. Call me an old fart, I'll stick to my DV tape.

I haven't done it yet but if it's anything like my point-n-shoot the video stays on the HD if you copy to the PC... until you manually delete it. Unless you cut-&-paste it to the PC HD.

I prefer a little redundancy until it's burned to a DVD.


While I was driving home from the store I was thinking, "Man this thing's small enough to take into a movie theater and do some movie-cam bootlegs".


and the first thing I said to my wife when I came home with it was "homemade porn tonight honey?". She wasn't up for it... that may change.

Get a wide angle lens.

Zoom is way overrated but wide angle is sooo useful, especially indoors.

Got one of these too for Xmas. Gonna take it with me downrange and use it to record our exploits. (And the girlfriend is already trying to suggest alternative uses. )

Also, I can guarentee you the optical zoom was not 800x and thats the only one that really matters. Digital zoom you can do in photoshop.

if you video live games and such you need zoom
indoors - wide angle comes in very handy
I also find a circular polarized filter comes in handy too.