I palpate a little mo guilty . The guy cable at Camcorderinfo.com , namely David Kender and John Neely , went to uttermost measures to benchmark the four HD camcorder fighting for dominance in the very young consumer HD securities industry . They write , like , over 10,000 words , and spent hours or perchance even days recording footage of the dude evidence at right . And here I come along and ejaculate out the results in the freaking headline . The Canon HV20 ( $ 1,000 to $ 1,100 ) scramble out the Sony HDR - HC7 ( $ 1,060 to $ 1,170 ) , the Panasonic HDC - SD1 ( $ 1,070 to $ 1,160 ) , and the newcomer , JVC ’s Everio GZ - HD7 ( $ 1,520 to $ 1,700 ) . It did n’t pull ahead handwriting - down , precisely , but in most cases it handily prod out the contest .
Do you want to have a go at it how ?
I ’m not going to seek to translate every little nuance of the encounter . All you really call for to know going in , if you do n’t already , is that the Sony and the Canon record to tape measure , and use HDV MPEG-2 compression . The Panasonic relies strictly on AVCHD , an MPEG-4 found choice , and store picture only on SD cards . The Everio records to at 60 GB hard drive with both AVCHD and “ a new savor of MPEG-2 ” .
[ The Canon HV20 ] shares an advantage over the Panasonic HDC - SD1 and JVC GZ - HD7 because it utilize tried and true HDV MPEG-2 compression , and our trial run show that HDV remains the good consumer HD format . Both the Canon and Sony HDR - HC7 — the other HDV camcorder in this shootout — scored high than the others in our video carrying into action tests . In the lab , the Canon and Sony raced to a practical dead heat , both displaying sharper image with less disturbance than the Panasonic and JVC .
The crispiness of the HV20 ’s image was most notable in close - up shot of our mannikin , where we could literally number every hair on our mannequin ’s face . [ Remember him ? ] The Sony was visibly less crisp ( though still quite acuate ) , followed by the Panasonic . The JVC GZ - HD7 trailed the battalion , with the humiliated tested video solution , and the soft images of the field . The Canon also turn in a starring low light score , thanks to a 24p mode that more than double the light assembly power of its imager . In low Inner Light , it beat out the others in the same order as above . The 24p capability in and of itself is a great extra feature on the HV20 , yet another reasonableness to consider it .
In the manual control arena , Sony edged forward with a wide range of options , but fall myopic of a win because it did not have a “ stress assist option ” unlike its more expensive predecessors . “ Panasonic ’s SD1 has an assist that is good , but not respectable enough to compensate for the weakness of the joystick as a focus tool . Only Canon and JVC get the focussing interface / centering assist equating right , and the HD7 gets extra points for its terrific nidus ring and highly efficacious peaking function . ”
The bottom demarcation go something like this :
The Sony HDR - HC7 was most feature - pack but absence seizure of a focus assist feature of speech was a liability . Cam Control multifunction dial was not as easy to use as its predecessors Cam Control band .
The Panasonic HDC - SD1 is too specialise , though it is secure for close quarter charge , situations that demand dumb operation , or a rock candy - solid optical image stabilizer . There ’s no headphone jack and no accessory skid . It also immortalise AVCHD video which does not yet pose a threat to HDV .
The JVC GZ - HD7 had great handling with nice prosumer trait like a focus halo and dedicated buttons for image ascendancy . lack of a headphone jack or any mean of monitoring and adjust audio levels . The biggest disappointment with the HD7 , however , was video recording execution : again , it does n’t stand up up to the quality of HDV video .
The Canon HV20 had cheap - experience construction and an awful zoom lever , but deliver good bang for the sawbuck .
From the auditory sensation of it , the boys are still seem for that perfect camcorder :
We ’d love to see a camcorder that really brings it all together : the treatment of the HD7 , the functionality of the HC7 , the OIS and compactness of the SD1 , and the performance of the HV20 . Until that come about , smart buyers would be advised to consider the strengths and failing of all of these camcorders , and prefer the one that is the best overall mate for their shot style and goals .
If you desire to consider all of that , as urge , you had better check out the full story . I will say that the layout over at Camcorderinfo.com is a mo tangled for my predilection ( okay , so really smack in the middle of business district Constantinople Byzantine ) , but you will never see effective information about camcorder . And you get to see more of cool sunglass guy . Respect .
The Great HD Shoot - Out – Canon HV20 , Sony HDR - HC7 , Panasonic HDC - SD1 , JVC GZ - HD7[Camcorderinfo.com ]
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