While I’ve had quite a few still image cameras, both of the digital and film sort, I haven’t been in video recording for quite nearly as long. Consumer-priced video recorders didn’t drop in price quite as quickly as photographic cameras have, nor have they been quite so compact. Just imagine for a moment: 20 years ago there were already reasonably compact film cameras, but people were still using those massive VHS video recorders.
I got my first digital video recorder in 1999 I think when miniDV recorders became available. That was a JVC GR-DVL105A camcorder that cost quite a bomb. Around $1.8K I think. It was a pretty good tool. Reasonably small (though massive by today’s standards), and for its time before High Definition and large TVs, the Standard Definition quality video images it recorded on miniDV tape was amazing. The second digital camcorder I bought was 2 years ago: another miniDV Sony DCR-HC28 camcorder that cost around $400 – how prices have dropped!
Full HD camcorders that record at the 1920×1080 resolutions have become available, albeit many still at the $2K prices here in Singapore. I’ve been eyeing for one and waiting for prices to drop now, so finally picked one up at a relatively low price of $1.2K this afternoon: a Panasonic HDC-SD20. I’ve been playing around it for most of the afternoon, and will write a quick review of it soon.:)
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