[amitoj]

I've decided to go for this
Sony - High-Definition Camcorder with 2.7" LCD Monitor - Red - HDR-CX150/R

Wifey said it can not be black or grey or silver, so that almost threw canon out the door. Wanted one with flash memory and HD recording. Flash was preferred over hdd since its more robust and faster.
Besides, extra memory needs can be satisfied by using memory cards

[Fillmore]

Originally Posted by amitoj

I've decided to go for this
Sony - High-Definition Camcorder with 2.7" LCD Monitor - Red - HDR-CX150/R

Wifey said it can not be black or grey or silver, so that almost threw canon out the door. Wanted one with flash memory and HD recording. Flash was preferred over hdd since its more robust and faster.
Besides, extra memory needs can be satisfied by using memory cards

I think you need to convince Lady Wifey that when it comes to handycams, just ruling them out based on their external casing color is not such a wise decision.

Flash is no doubt good, but Flash memory capacity is still way less than HDD. As for the Flash being more robust and faster does not really hold much water here. A HDD based camera is as fast as a flash based camera when you are talking about video. The recording speed is going to be the same anyways. Even access to videos for previews is direct access and has no lag . Plus with a HDD you can shoot min upto 24 hrs of video with good resolution , with flash you might end up having to download since your capacity would be full. And this is a painful irritant when you are away on vacation in some remote place.

So best of luck, I think you should change your criteria.

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by Fillmore

I think you need to convince Lady Wifey that when it comes to handycams, just ruling them out based on their external casing color is not such a wise decision.

Flash is no doubt good, but Flash memory capacity is still way less than HDD. As for the Flash being more robust and faster does not really hold much water here. A HDD based camera is as fast as a flash based camera when you are talking about video. The recording speed is going to be the same anyways. Even access to videos for previews is direct access and has no lag . Plus with a HDD you can shoot min upto 24 hrs of video with good resolution , with flash you might end up having to download since your capacity would be full. And this is a painful irritant when you are away on vacation in some remote place.

So best of luck, I think you should change your criteria.

Well, i am not very keen on handycam anyway. Still-camera remains my weapon of choice. So i am willing to let her have her say on this one.

As for flash vs hdd, drop an hdd camera and see what happens to the hard disk inside it. Mount it on car, go around the track and the camera will shut off in 5 seconds due to vibrations. It is a proven technical fact that flash memory is more robust than hdd because it has no moving parts. Plus, flash memory is lighter and smaller. And the speed of writing to flash memory is indeed faster than writing to hdd. HDDs will eventually fail, because of the moving parts.

Maybe others do it, but i know we won't. And that is record hours and hours of footage just because there is space. I've sat through some vacation videos and trust me, they are mind boggingly boring!

16GB of built in flash gives upto 3 hours of recording time. It is good enough for my usage. Anything more and i know it will do nothing but accumulate junk.

[vista_qjd]

Have been looking for handycams and finally decided to not to go with them. Instead am planning to get a camera with HD recording capability. Like someone said, movies are boring if they are anywhere beyond 5 mins. So a camera with HD which comes for around 10K will shoot great pictures and also give the option to record HD movies.