HV20 Right for me?

[eubanks01]

So I've been reading these boards for several weeks now and contemplating getting an HV20. I've been monitoring the price and it seems that it continues to fall...although I know it went up slightly at B&H recently.

While I have used camcorders in the past, this will be my first time to own one. I've been in the DSLR world for 5 years now and have really enjoyed photography. I've always thought I would enjoy video, but now that my wife is pregnant, I'm finally going to make the plunge!

So I bought a Panasonic GS85 recently and was really, really disappointed with the video quality on an HD set...obviously. So now that the HV20 is getting cheaper, it's starting to get in range of the budget.

I guess my question is if this camera will suit somebody well that wants good quality video shooting family stuff, action sports, etc. that also wishes to do a "little" bit of editing...music, transitions, etc? I do plan on trying to shoot in 24p and using some of the manual controls, but I will say I don't want to spend more than $150 on editing software nor do I want to do hours upon hours of video editing at a time.

So am I better off with a non-HD camera or will the HV20 suite me fine?

-Thank you

[veg]

HV-20 Yes..Think of where you want to be with your camera in 2010

[Erik Bien]

Hi eubanks, welcome to the forum!

What veg said; if it makes your decision any easier, the HV20 has at least two ways to "pretend" it's a standard-definition DV camcorder: one, you can either choose to shoot in DV 4:3 (normal) or DV 16:9 (wide) or two (the better method) is to record in HDV, then set the camera's output to "DV Lock" on playback. That way if your computer or your NLE skills aren't yet up to the task of editing HDV, you can bring it into the computer as DV and make SD-DVDs now, while preserving your high-def tapes should you decide to go HD later.

[skiltrip]

I started out a few weeks back with the GS80 (more or less same camera as GS85) and I didn't take me more than a couple of days before I grew out of it too. It just wasn't up to snuff. Colors weren't accurate, quality wasn't there and I kept here super stuff about this HV20. I took the plunge, and VERY glad I did. You can get Vegas 8 Platinum for under $100 (you can get new/sealed ones on Ebay for about $65), and it can edit anything the HV20 can throw at it.

You'll have a ton of fun with this HV20. I sure am.

[eubanks01]

Thanks for the replies, and this is great to hear. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't getting in way over my head.

I did that with digital photography a few years back, but I ended up really getting into it so it worked out well. I'm hoping the same thing will happen here, and that's the reason I'm looking at a nicer camera that has HD capabilities.

Thank you all!