I think much of this depends on your perspective regarding future proofing your gear. The PD-150 is a great camera – but you are stuck with standard def 4:3 material. The HV20 is a different class of camera – it’s only a one chip consumer camera. But you do get HD, which can always be down converted to SD if needed – and it looks better than footage shot on an SD camera. The disadvantage is low light capabilities – the PD-150 is said to be the champ in this arena.

Having said that – Why are your choices limited to these 2 cameras? For the price of a PD-150, you can get into a SONY A1U which is HD and has XLR. The question I ask is are you going to be shooting completely solo or are you going to have a crew? Shooting Solo will dictate a different set of gear compared to shooting with a crew.

There are very few advantages to shooting with XLR – my understanding is that other than the duability of the plug, there are really no advantages except for more mics are available in that plug style.

There is a mic I came across from Ambiet Recordings called the TinyMic that fits mini-jack and is said to be as good if not better than many XLR based mics. And its name belies the sound quality.

Specifics will dictate your equipment choices. I shoot with a couple of HC7’s due to the fact that there is only one pro grade underwater housing – whereas the HC7 has several.

Unless I know more about your shooting style is, it’s hard to give an accurate answer about equipment recommendations.

HTH,

Cliff

What might your recommendation be between a Sony PD-150 vs. the Canon HV-20? I’m shooting 3 documentaries that I want to enter into Sundance. (I’m persuaded I have excellent content!).

For me one drawback of the HV 20 is that I would need to buy an XLR adapter vs. the PD-150 has XLR sound built in. But the PD-150 is clearly more expensive and the Canon HV20 has many great features, (including being in HD which can be a real plus).

What are your thoughts? How would you analyze this?

I do think these are my final two choices and options… to me I think it’s going to be one or the other.

Additionally, I will be doing some one person filming; does either camera lend itself more readily to that genre of documentary filmmaking for film festivals? I have negligible interest at this time in producing to the web.

Thanks, I love your site!

Matt

If by tapeless you mean hard drive based camcorders, remember if you manage to fill up the hard drive what is your back up or archive strategy. As you will have to offload the footage before using it again, unlike tape or dvd based options you simply replace with a new tape or disk, thus keeping all the recorded footage to hand to access later for editing and reviewing.

The downside with dvd based options especially consumer camcorder is the format is not always great due to compression and codecs and mxf file system does not readily import in most commonly used editing applications and you will need to use the software provided by the camera manufacturer. These tend to pc based options only at the moment as well.

If hard drive options still appeals have a look at the JVC gz-hd7 a 3 chip HD 1080i camera that records 1920 x 1080, 5 hour record time to drive. But have a look on line and see the reviews. Try some cameras out and see what you like, how are you planning on using it and whatever you do enjoy the experiences and stories you document.

There is a lot of talk about the Canon HV20 which I have seen for around $1000-$1200. The camera has the seven features that I feel are required for any serious VJ work.

The SONY HC7 might be one to consider as well – both of these cameras are HD so you do get more bang for your buck as compared to shooting an SD camera.

Cliff