Well, this isn't quite the first plunge for us into the high-def world. We already have a couple of high-def TV for a while. It is just that I think this is the start of getting everything to be able to do most of everything in high-def from now on.
Over the weekend, we've been playing with the new high-def camcorder that we just bought. It took a long time and some careful consideration before we settled on getting the Sony HDR-HC9. We had to consider what we use it for, how we use it, and of course, our ability to edit the movies we took with it. This was the best high-def camcorder for our needs.
We had several criteria, obviously. First, we decided that we much prefer the HDV format, which is basically a Mini DV format for high-def. Yes, we continue to use tapes instead of hard-drive storage, DVD, or even AVCHD format. There's a very good reason for it. We don't like the DVD format because the camcorder tends to be bulkier, and there are issues on having our existing movie editing softwares (Sony Vegas and Final Cut Pro) working smoothly with it. We don't like the hard-drive format because it means that on long trips when we have a lot of footage, we have to dump it off either to a PC/laptop, or another storage device to free up space. AVCHD was a close choice, but how many existing movie editing softwares can accept that format? Nope. HDV was more than sufficient for our purposes, and that's why we stuck by that format.
But why the Sony? We have had Sony camcorders of various versions from the very beginning, with a brief "interruption" with a Canon. From our experience, Sony produces better shots, especially in low lighting/fireworks, and better image stabilization. The model that we bought is their latest model using the HDV format. It is small enough that it is comfortable to carry around, and doesn't weigh any more than the existing camcorder that we currently have. So that's how we ended up with our choice.
Since our trip to WDW is barely a couple of weeks away, we are pretty excited to use our new toy. Unfortunately, I realized that we now would want to reshoot ALL of the parades and fireworks that we already have. We probably have to do this gradually, of course. But I'm dying to reshoot Wishes and Illuminations in high-def. Those would be spectacular.
So with the new camcorder, and the fact that I can now blog live using my Blackberry while I'm there, we are all set for our next trip! :)
The next high-def plunge will be a Blu-Ray player....
Zz.
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