What new video camera?

[FatBloke]

My old Sony Hi8 Handycam has had it's day (Although it cost me over £600 back in 1993).

I want to replace it with a digital video camera, for when we go to the US in just over a weeks time.

It has to be small.
Not bothered whether it records onto disk or into memory for later downloading.
It has to be inexpensive.
It has to be available in Heathrow T4 duty free.

[Valiant]

I'd go for HDD recorder, no constant expense with tapes/DVD etc. Most midrange Sony's are good I'll have a gander through my emails and see what we have at work.

[antpix]

The only problem with HDD cameras is the spinning disc can fail to record if the camera is moved (violently!) during filming.

Happened to a friend of mine when filming a news piece, move the camera too quickly and it had lots of drop out. Seemed to be happening too often to be reliable.

I think that solid state cards are the way forward although P2 and SxS are comedy expensive at the moment, SD cards and CF are being used in consumer cameras and you can get some pretty high GB storage now.

The only problem with digital is storage but then you knew that ;-)

HTH

Ant

[Jaded]

The BBC is in the process of converting to P2. Maybe the price will come down when they have finished!

Solid state is the way to go, IHMO. We just aren't quite there yet.