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OK here's the deal... finally am ready to buy a new HD camera... I had a budget of around ?3500 in mind, but thinking that is only going to allow about ?2500-?2700 for the camera itself...

Reason being I am going to have to buy a decent computer, like ?800-?1000 worth so I can render the video easier... and not have all the resources on my main computer backed up when rendering...

So what can I get for ?2500 ? I like Sony... any suggestions ? Any help appreciated...

Wow Puretotty...A computer and a camera in HD for ?3500?....Will the computer include the editing software as well?

Im sure it can be done if you want to buy an HDD cam you can get for about ?600 but if you are looking at the smallest Sony HD Mini DC camcorder on the market that is going to set you back ?1800 alone (unless you can find someone selling one second hand of course)

If I was you I'd get down to Tottenham Court Road and go into Ask Electronics and have a look at the cameras and ask questions. They have a good range and are very helpful and know what they are talking about...Well Ash and Ringo do anyway.

Good advice from Terry as always. Ask are good at matching prices and know what they're talking about.

In terms of specific cameras, this sort of price range is where the bottom of the Sony Broadcast range overlaps with the higher end consumer cameras. I don't know about the consumer ones, but at that price I'd go for the Sony HVR-A1 or if you want to impress the girls with the size of your equipment(!), you could try the HVR-HD1000 which is a shoulder-mounted beast, although ironically with less professional features - it's aimed at wedding videographers.

If you spend your whole computer+camera budget (and a bit more!) you could stretch to the new HVR-Z5 which is a 3-chip model so will give much better picture quality and also writes to both traditional tape and compact flash cards, giving you a tapeless option that avoids the time taken to capture video into your editing system.

Personally, the camera I'm currently wanking myself silly over is the PMW-EX3. It shoots in XDCAM EX with a much higher bitrate than HDV. Plus it's got an interchangeable lens and variable frame rate. The only snag is the 6 grand price tag. See http://www.mitcorp.com/public/cvp_video ... quality=hi . It's better than sex. (Sorry girls!)

As Fred mentioned the Z5 is out now, also the Z7 which would be my choice. If you're on a tighter budget, try to find a decent, hardly used Z1 or V1, the older models. Probably many tech-junkies will buy the new models no matter what, and they want to get rid of their Z1/V1s. I have a V1 and I'm very happy with it. Also the A1E is a great camera.

I personally use the Panasonic 201HVX works like a charm!

Rendering HD is a pain in FCP on our powerful intel Macs...

We're upgrading to shoot direct onto digital via Firestore with simultaneous back up on conventional tape..speeds up capture!

Personally I like my consumer Sony HDV's. I use Two HC5E's and an HC9E with sony wide conversion lenses and a Sennheizer MKE 300 mic.
I have always been very pleased with the quality from these.
I edit everything on a self built quad core pc running Premiere Pro CS3.
For an idea of quality this setup produces download this trailer: http://www.tyrantteasers.com/free/trail ... _720p.divx
I guess the only minor drawback of these cameras is that the lighting has to be good to keep the quality up to full potential.
I did have my eye on the more expensive Sony HDR-FX1 but can't justify spending that much at the mo when I'm producing perfectly good results already. Well results I'm happy with anyway. I'm sure plenty of people could find fault if they wanted too!