New Camcorders

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A colleague from the Movie Maker team recently sent an email with the following list of Camcorders that were talked about at CES 2007.

Sony (16 new camcorders):

HDV: 2 (HDR-HC5/7)

AVCHD: 2 (HDR-UX5/7)

HDD: 5 (DCR-SR42/62/82, DCR-SR200/300)

DVD: 4 (DCR-DVD108/308/408/508)

miniDV: 3 (DCR-HC28/38/48)

Canon (7 new camcorders):

DVD: 4 (DC210/220/230, D50)

miniDV: 3 (ZR800/830/850)

Panasonic (8 new camcorders):

AVCHD: 2 (HDC-SD1/DX1)

miniDV: 3 (PV-GS80/85/320)

DVD: 1 (VDR-D310)

HDD/Flash Hybrid: 2 (SDR-H20/H200)

JVC (7 new camcorders):

HDD HD: 1 (GZ-HD7)

HDD/Flash Hybrid: 4 (GZ-MG130/155/255/555)

miniDV: 2 (GR-D750/796)

Samsung (7 new camcorders):

Flash HD: 1 (SC-HMX10)

Flash SD: 2 (SC-X300/300L)

miniDV: 1 (SC-D372)

DVD: 2 (SC-D173/575)

DVD/Flash Hybrid: 1 (SC-DX10)

Hitachi (4 new camcorders):

DVD/HDD Hybrid: 2 (DZ-HS300A/500A)

DVD: 2 (DZ-GX5020A/5080A)

Sanyo (1 new camcorder):

Flash HD: 1 (VPC-HD2)

 

So if you take a quick glance at these camcorders you'll see there are 2 HDV and 12 miniDV camcorders. So out of 50 camcorders, 72% won't actually need to use the Video Capture Wizard (as they don't use tape).

To this I say - fantastic :-).

One of the nice advantages of working on the Movie Maker team is that you get the opportunity to borrow various camcorders. So over the years I've shot tapes in PAL standard definition, NTSC standard definition, 1080i (50i) and 1080i (60i). Unfortunately I've not always captured all the footage from the tapes straight away, so over time I've managed to create an ever bulging zip-lock bag full of DV tapes (around 35). Over Christmas I finally got around to setting up a RAID array and capturing all these tapes using the capture wizard on Vista. It worked flawlessly and I didn't run into any issues, it just took a loooonnng time. Whenever I get around to buying a camcorder I can guarantee that it won't contain a tape :-)