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Camcorders: The Current State of the Art

If you must buy now, here's what to look for in a future-proof consumer HD camcorder.

For HDV: Here, the choices are relatively simple.Since all HDV camcorders record at the same resolutions and bit rates to MiniDV tape, the features to look for are the things that increase picture quality in any camcorder, such as a good lens with a long optical zoom, a big image sensor (CCD), image stabilization, and great low-light performance. See this helpful Digital Camcorder Buying Guide for more on these features.

 The Canon Vixia HV30 ($999) and the Sony HDR-HC9 ($1099), both introduced this spring, currently top most reviewers' HDV quality charts. Both cameras have 10X optical zoom and HDMI ports for direct hookup and playback on your HDTV. If you don't plan to edit your home movies, the video never needs to touch your PC at all, sidestepping the downsides of tape.

For AVCHD: This is where things really get complicated, due to the wide range of recording media and capacities in AVCHD camcorders. Sony alone has ten models: four hard disk-based, five DVD-based, and one with Memory Stick-only recording. But the models of interest are the full HD 1920x1080 cameras with a maximum 16 mbps bit rate, which narrows things down to four: the hard disk-based HDR-SR10 (40GB), SR10D (120GB), SR11 (60GB) and SR12 (120GB). The HDR-SR11 ($1200) and SR12 ($1400) have  better image sensors and LCDs, and higher still image resolution (10MP) than the SR10/10D (4MP). The 120GB drive holds about 15 hours of video at maximum quality, and all can be expanded with Memory Stick Pro flash cards. 

Canon and Panasonic each have two models of comparable quality. Canon offers the Vixia HF10 ($1100) and HF100 ($900). Both are flash-based, and record at up to 1920x1080 and 17 mbps. The HF100 has a slot for SDHC cards that hold one hour of maximum quality video per 8GB. The HF10 has 16GB of built-in solid-state memory as well as the SDHC slot. Panasonic's entries are the HDC-SD9 ($800) and HDC-HS9 ($1000). Like the Canon HF100, the flash-based HDC-SD9 offers 1920x1080/17 mbps recording and an SDHC card slot that runs 8GB per hour. The HS9 basically adds a 60GB hard disk to the SD9, for about 7.5 hours of top-quality recording.

Note that while all three vendors offer DVD-based AVCHD camcorders, none are capable of the maximum bit rates of the flash and hard-disk models, so for long-term storage, you'll need to copy the video to another drive or use your PC's DVD or Blu-ray recorder to archive it.

The HDTV Color Connection: xvYCC

The Panasonic and Sony camcorders mentioned here (both AVCHD and HDV) support the expanded color range of the xvYCC standard, which promises an amazing 1.8 times more reds, greens and blues than standard sRGB color. With xvYCC, colors are more accurate and have smoother gradations.

xvYCC can be displayed by many new HDTVs from the two vendors, and is part of the HDMI 1.3 specification. Panasonic brands it as "Digital Cinema Color," while Sony calls it "x.v.Color." Since xvYCC is a standard, theoretically camcorders and TVs from various vendors should be interoperable, but both companies recommend sticking with one brand for both HD camcorder and HDTV for guaranteed results. If you don't have an xvYCC-capable HDTV yet, it doesn't hurt to record in this format for future use. The extra color information will simply be discarded on its way to your TV.

Note that xvYCC is related to, but not the same as, "Deep Color," another HDTV technology that refers to higher bit depth. Both increase the number of colors available, but only xvYCC is currently available in consumer camcorders.