[Eugenia Loli-Queru @ Nov 18th 2007 5:57AM]

This camera sells for $700. Just put another $100 to the table and get the much better Canon HV20 (which is already legendary and voted best camcorder of the year). Except the smaller size, this Sanyo video camera does absolutely nothing better than the HV20. It would have been a cool purchase if the price was at about $400, but at $700 is already outrun by the HV20.

[Andreas @ Nov 18th 2007 6:22AM]

The HV20 doesn't seem so bad. But it records on Mini-DV tape with HDV. I think moving away from the tape is one of the points here. And greater compression another point. Working directly with files and flash memory a third point. I've read it shoots great video, the HV20, but they should have moved to AVC and flash.

[Eugenia Loli-Queru @ Nov 18th 2007 6:38AM]

I agree that AVCHD is preferable to HDV in terms of convenience. In fact I blogged here how AVCHD will eventually overthrow HDV: http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2007/09/30/hdv-vs-avchd/
However, until that day comes and a really good AVCHD camera comes out, the HV20 is still a better camera in both manual controls and quality.

[Xzavier @ Nov 18th 2007 2:33PM]

I have the HV20 and it shoots great video! I do a lot of shooting of events that I go to. Sometimes events are 4-6 hours and long 2 days straight. Imagine trying to offload your 1st days work onto your PC at night to get your camcorder ready for the 2nd day and then 2 days later you go to another event, just way too much work! Tapeless also seems nice until you run out of HD space on your computer and then you find out very quickly how screwed you are, not good. Yes tapeless can hold hours of vids but at the lowest picture quality.

Tapes are easy to swap out and very cheap. However if you are going to do some casual recording hear and there and you have a TON of processing power, then knock yourself out!

[LondonConsultant @ Nov 23rd 2007 8:51AM]

If video quality is most important, then the Canon HV20 is a good choice (especially if you use its 24 FPS mode). If camera size or having flash memory is more important, then AVCHD may be a good choice. But AVCHD isn't more convenient than HDV if you want to edit your footage - AVCHD workflow can be a real pain... Also note that AVCHD quality can't compete with good HDV quality until someone implements a higher AVCHD bit rate (eg 15-20 MBPS instead of 11 MBPS)...