The JVC GZ-HD7, the first of the JVC HDD cameras is now a little over a year old and discontinued, but I’ve seen these on line for as little as $800. A really nice Fujinon lens makes a huge difference and full manual controls is important. Three 1/5’ 16:9 progressive scan CCD’s are pretty impressive for a camera in this price range. It has manual controls, a mic input and an excellent focus ring which is surprisingly rare on small cameras. It records directly to a built in 60GB hard drive. The issue here is the MPEG-2 compression (TOD). It’s not compatible with many NLE’s so you’ll need to convert the TOD to QuickTime or AVI.

The GZ-HD6 can record 1080/60p through HDMI - pretty impressive.

The GZ-HD40 is a bit of a disappointment. I like that it records using AVCHD compression which makes it compatible with most NLE’s but it loses the important focus ring. And it’s so small.

The Panasonic HDC-SD100 uses a 3-CMOS array and records 1920 x 1080 video in the AVCHD format to SD and SDHC memory cards. I like the ring on the lens that controls zoom, focus, white balance, shutter speed, and iris and it actually has a viewfinder in addition to the LCD screen. Very important it has both a mic and headphone jack. I found it difficult to handle with all the cables attached (mic, headphones and monitor) but it’s a camera with all the basics.

The Panasonic HDC-HS300 is a fine camera. I got to use it in January for a little test run shooting some behind the scenes footage for a model shoot in Las Vegas. I likes the focus ring - a great improvement over similar cameras. But I didn’t like the touch screen controls. On the plus side it has the essentials - headphone and mic jacks and manual control over all the basics. I like that it uses the AVCHD format. There is a nice toggle switch at the front of the lens for switching between the zoom and the focus. It took just a few tries for me to master it.

Close is the Canon HV20. It records in HDV (1080i) and 24p (60i), has a mic input and manual controls of white balance and focus but it uses one 1/2.7” CMOS sensor rather than 3 CCD’s. And it’s so small the handling is difficult.

The HV30 adds a 30f (Canon’s “frame mode”) in addition to 24p.

The Sony HDR-SR12 has a mic input and a good sized 120GB HDD. It uses a 1/3” CMOS chip and like the Canon is really small. Because of the input placement, the mic cable kept getting in my way. The HR9 (which records to tape) is also a nice, very small, camera with the essentials. Again the mic input is just below the lens which is rather poor placement, in my opinion.

Pushing the price cap is the Sony HD1000U. It’s $1,400 and has all the essentials. The touch screen is too unusual for me - I’m old school - but it works quite well. I like that it’s a shoulder mount camera. It only uses one CMOS Sensor, but the image was very nice.

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