Have decided to buy a Canon HV40

[CityTop]

Hello

This is my first post in this forum. I have been looking for a camcorder for some time and have been convinced by the many fantastic videos from the HV series which I have seen - and the many comments from this forum.

I am inclined to go for the HV40, which can also still be bought new. I think this is what I might do, since I also would like to have the guarantee.

I have not looked into the second hand market for Canon HV camcorders. Can I ask you if there are any particular problems/weaknesses to look out for if I should decide to go for the second-hand market on ebay?

Thank you very much in advance - and happy 2011 to everyone here!

[1]

An advantage to go with a HV20 or HV30 is that you can use the hack (and switch back and forth between PAL and NTSC and other things).
Official Firmware Hacking Thread (new)


Welcome to the forum!

[CityTop]

Thanks for this advice. Yes, I gather this is possible from the "hacks" section of this forum However, if I buy a new camcorder, the guarantee will usually become void with modified firmware.

For a second-hand camcorder, your idea is of course absolutely valid.

But for second-hand, like I said, I would like to know if there are any known weaknesses to be particulary wary of, i.e. tape transport mechanism or whatever. I have never owned a DV-based camcorder. In my case, second-hand would mean ebay, and often you don't see the product before you buy it. It is therefore important to be able to ask the right questions.

However, I am leaning more and more towards buying a new.

[Almohada]

I don't know where would you would find a new HV40, because isn't it discontinued? And if you did get a new one hopefully it does have a warranty

[jotkeycom]

I don't know where would you would find a new HV40, because isn't it discontinued? And if you did get a new one hopefully it does have a warranty

Woah woah woah, hasn't been discontinued at all... It just came out not that long ago damn. Link in my signature...

Here is where you can BUY one though for pretty cheap. ($650)

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...efinition.html

[darthpaully]

You can still buy the HV40 from many different places, but it is in fact NOT being produced anymore. In fact HDV all together is evaporating. In my area I searched high and wide just to look at an HV40, to no avail. I bought the same $650 steal from BH w/ warranty and couldn't be happier- do it before they are gone forever.

Woah woah woah, hasn't been discontinued at all...

This all depends on your definition of discontinued, of course..... (where is Bob Sanders when we need an argument!)

[cgbier]

I'd also suggest a brand new HV40.

Normally, I buy one generation behind (that's why have a 30***), but as the 40 is the last Mohican you can't go wrong with it.

*** don't need no stinking 24p

[Almohada]

Woah woah woah, hasn't been discontinued at all...

Darthpaully is the one who told me!

[CityTop]

Thanks, everyone, for your time and comments. Despite the warning against the HV series because of the tape transport noise, which I have seen in other parts of this forum, you have convinced me that my choice is probably right.

@jotkeycom, yes i saw the 650$ pricetag at B&H. However, this is the NTSC model and I want to go with PAL as I'm European. Interestingly, they also sell the PAL version for $1,049. I hope to find it cheaper than that.

I will also be considering very carefully which extras to buy. I happen to already own a RØDE stereo video mic., but I am worried this particular mic might pick up a lot of the tape buzz... I hope this won't be too much of a problem, because good sound is really important to me.

Thanks again for all your comments. This really seems to be a helpful and kind forum!

[jotkeycom]

Thanks, everyone, for your time and comments. Despite the warning against the HV series because of the tape transport noise, which I have seen in other parts of this forum, you have convinced me that my choice is probably right.

@jotkeycom, yes i saw the 650$ pricetag at B&H. However, this is the NTSC model and I want to go with PAL as I'm European. Interestingly, they also sell the PAL version for $1,049. I hope to find it cheaper than that.

I will also be considering very carefully which extras to buy. I happen to already own a RØDE stereo video mic., but I am worried this particular mic might pick up a lot of the tape buzz... I hope this won't be too much of a problem, because good sound is really important to me.

Thanks again for all your comments. This really seems to be a helpful and kind forum!

You shouldn't get any tape buzz from the camera if you have an external mic. If you do get slight buzz, you can always edit it out with Audacity or whatnot. If you want good sound though, you want to boom your mic to record audio facing the floor. This guy explains it well. Consider getting a mic that records in shotgun/mono.

[CityTop]

...you want to boom your mic to record audio facing the floor. This guy explains it well.

I agree. Nice video. Well, as I 1) get to buy the camcorder and 2) gain confidence using it, I will probably be looking at a boom mic solution. Presumably, the RØDE stereo videomic I have can be used for this. I have tried a few times to record interviews with seperate audio picked up using a FlashMic. That worked really well. Great audio, but they are way too expensive. We happen to have some at my work.

I hope to find a new HV40 PAL at a reasonable cost. They are about EUR 820 at cheapest e-stores. I will keep you posted! Thanks again!

[jotkeycom]

No problem.

[CityTop]

It was a long an painful process

But I have finally found--and ordered--a Canon HV40 which I expect to pick up tomorrow.

My starting point was that I thought the huge price difference between the PAL and the NTSC version of this camcorder was unfair, because they are basically the same. I therefore wanted to find a PAL version with a price tag as close as possible to that of the NTSC.

First, I stumbled on a (professional), UK-based eBay dealer who, interestingly, advertised a "NEW Canon LEGRIA VIXIA HV40 HV-40 HDV Digital Camcorder", stating it was both PAL and NTSC compatible and asking potential customers to make an offer. I made an offer of 550£, but realised immediately after that there was something strange in the description: the seller seemed to mix PAL/NTSC with 110V/200V power standards! I sent him a question, saying that I was only interested in a camera that could do PAL. He claimed that the camera was "perfectly suitable for use in Belgium", but after a little e-mailing back and forth, it became clear that this was, in fact, the VIXIA (NTSC) version.

Now, thanks to you brilliant folks here on the forum, I knew VIXIA was a no-go for me, since there is no hack to change the firmware.

The seller then tried to find a PAL version for me, but to no avail I think. After two weeks, we mutually agreed to cancel the eBay deal.

Yesterday, I saw the camcorder on Pixmania's internet store in Belgium at 699€, and ordered it. The street price at retailers here in Brussels varies from 900-1,100€. But even at 699€, the LEGRIA is more expensive than the VIXIA, so it would have been lovely if a firmware hack existed.

It is also very difficult to find Panasonic miniDV tapes in Europe. Google searches invariably seem to lead you to sellers in the USA, but today I finally found a retailer in the Netherlands, www.proftapes.com, and ordered 4x5 AY-DVM63AMQ cassettes.

I can't wait to get it all - and get started filming!

[CityTop]

Done! I picked up my brand new HV40 LEGRIA Thursday. I still think I got a reasonable deal. I have seen professional sellers on eBay who want more than 1,700 euros for this camcorder.

Still waiting for the 20 AY-DVM63AMQ cassettes I ordered, though. So no shootout yet

[robstowell]

I buy tapes from globalmediapro. They are in NZ, but also London, I believe, and do ship worldwide. Not sure how the prices rate compared to locally, but certainly the cheapest in NZ.

[darthpaully]

congrats citytop, have fun with your new toy...

[CityTop]

@robstowell, thanks! Eventually, I got the 20 Panasonic tapes I had ordered. That particular type is not easy to find in Europe as I have discussed in this thread. I was about to forget about Panansonic and get some Sony Premium cassettes as recommended by Janke, but then my 4 5-packs of AY-DVM63AMQ arrived, so now I think I'll just stay with them.

@darthpaully, thanks - yes, I am thrilled Sad to report, however, my (so far) beloved MacBook Pro is giving me problems just as I thought I was going to start editing video in Premiere Pro--and probably ask loads of questions about workflows in this forum But my mac seemingly got kernel panic and wouldn't take me beyond the grey apple screen, until I re-installed Snow Leopard and backed everything up from Time Machine. Now, I have a working mac but no sound and the mac cannot find any sound devices. Unfortunately, this may well require a new mainboard - *very* expensive. So far, I am using an external sound card (Apogee Duet) instead...

That was a long digression just to tell you that while my mac was down, I had to use an older desktop PC with specs well below what you probably need for video editing: AMD Sempron, 2000 Mhz - 2GB RAM - Video: nVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT AGP.

I took a few minutes of footage using both the HV40 and my old camcorder, the Sony HDR-SR12 (before selling it). The indoor lighting wasn't good enough so I'll have to do another test.
But whereas editing the Sony's AVCHD files in Vegas Platinum 9 was very, very slow, on that desktop computer, I had no problems with the video captured (also in Vegas) from the HV40.

[cgbier]

HDV is much easier on a computer than AVCHD. That's why I prefer to stick with that (or any other MPEG2) format.
Got an older 1.8 GHz Intel Celery with 1.25GB RAM running Ubuntu. Even that machine could handle the HV40 files in Open Movie.

[Almohada]

Are you going to pick up one of our HVFF's for your HV40?

[CityTop]

@Almohada yes, no doubt, but I just want to try out the basic stuff before adding too much gear. I hope they will be available for some time to come...

@cgbier, yep Ubuntu might be an idea too. Do you run 64-bit Ubuntu?

I tried to shoot with the 0.66x wide angle converter from Raynox just before. Wow! It is spectacular to have this wider field of view. I doubt I will be taking it off very often. But I really need a hood. A lot of flare as soon as I pointed the cam towards a window where the sunlight was coming in. The hood I ordered should be here in about 2 weeks.

Editing is going to be a huge challenge. For the 2 test shots with the two different camcorders (HV40 and Sony HDR-SR12), i.e. about 2 times 3 minutes, put together in one Vegas project, the avi rendering was *huge* - something like 17 GB!! I was more succesful in getting the footage rendered with Vegas' DVD-settings, at least in terms of size. But I must sit down and read more about video editing. I believe there are some threads here in the forum on file size of rendered video.

[CityTop]

You can still buy the HV40 from many different places, but it is in fact NOT being produced anymore.

FWIW, I saw the HV40 with a "to be discontinued" tag at MediaMarkt (huge German retail chain for consumer electronics and domestic appliances) yesterday in Brussels, at 1,049€ if anyone is interested