Canon Elura or Sony DV?

whats up doods.

.Got question, which digi cam do you guys own or would recommend?

The Elura's seem promising, and priced right, also the Sony DV one is sweet, records to DVDR's and Dual-Layer DVD-R's.

Just so many of em', can't decide..

Canon Elura 65 seems to attract me now the most, especially at it's price.

wrong forum but..

i'd stay away from the DVD camcorders for now, most you'll get is 60 mins and that's only if your get the double sided DVD-RAMs which Sony doesn't support, dunno about Canon but i doubt it.

see, DVD camcorders record in already compressed format, whereas MiniDV camcorders record on thier tapes in uncompressed format, which is what you wanna do if your going to be editing. Also longer tapes 60min 90min LP, and also 80min tapes with 120min LP.

DVD camcorders technology hasn't been perfected yet and alot of them have been overheating and breaking, also if you don't have a somewhat new DVD player it won't read the discs.

I'd take a look at the new Sony DCRHC series 21, 32, and 42. They have been vastly improved over last years models and now come with a 20x optical zoom instead of the shitty 10x, well execpt for the 42 which is very nice with a widescreen LCD but only a 12x zoom. Sony MiniDV camcorders have it all, Image Stabilization, Night Shot plus, Touchscreen LCDs which are also backlit and built-in lens covers.

Also the 32 and the 42 this year come with a cool docking station, and they take megapixel stills.

Nevermind, the Sony DCR-HC21 seems more compelling, I tested the Elura 60 at circuitcity and the LCD displays the recording real slow, the Sony did one hell of a job though.

I have the Elura 65, and I can honestly say that it is an awesome camcorder. The image quality is almost identical to my friend's Sony TRV38, but the Sony has a more red tint to it (the image, not the camera itself.....)

Get the Elura 65, it is way better than an HC21. And plus, you're getting the world-renowned Canon optics. They make some of the best lenses in the world.

The Elura has a 1.33 megapixel CCD, which translates to vibrant colors (though only a fraction of those pixels are actually used), whereas the HC21 has only 0.68MP. Again, only a fraction of those pixels are used in video, it's mostly just for still pictures you can take onto an SD card.

The lens and CCD on the Elura are also much, much bigger than those on the HC21. In tandem, these two devices will allow more light to be recorded on the Elura than on the HC21. Not only does this again give you vibrant and rich colors, but it also means that the Elura performs better in low light (see next paragraph.)

As the amount of light a camcorder has to work with decreases, so does the uniqueness of each color. Colors bleed onto each other and the image becomes grainy. It's not a pretty sight. However, thanks to the fact that the Elura can bring in more light than the HC, this degradation of image quality will not happen as often if you get the Elura.

EDIT: I just added in some examples of how the Elura compares to the HC.

Does your Elura 65 LCD screen give you fast feedback or is it sluggish? For some odd reason I loved the Elura 60 that CC had but the LCD screen feedback was sluggish ?

Do you have some sample videos of your Elura 65 that I can see? I'm going to use this camera alot in night-scene areas, so infared is a nice thing to have.

Just a few questions on your Elura 65:

Battery Life?
Video Record Quality?
Camera Build Quality?
Do you like the camera?

Thanks bro.

The battery life with the included battery isn't that great, maybe about 1 to 1.5 hours before it dies. I got a Lenmar high-capacity battery (NB-2LH) for it for about $50 though, and that has never gotten down to less than 50% while I've been using it.

The picture quality is great, though it could be better. However, everything is nice and sharp and the colors are very rich.

Then there's the LCD screen. This is definitely the Elura's weak point. You are 100% correct, there is a little bit of lag in the screen. That is just the screen, though - when you connect the camera to a TV or a computer to play back it's fine. Also, for some reason the video looks worse on the LCD screen than it does when you've got it connected to another device like a TV. It's also kinda hard to see the LCD when you're outside and it's a bright day, so you have to use the viewfinder.

The camera itself is kind of small, so if you have large hands you might not like it. It feels very sturdy yet very lightweight; the body is made entirely of plastic. I've never dropped it or anything, so I can't say how well it stands up to damage.

Here's a sample video. It's not mine, and it's the Elura 70. The 65 and the 70 have the same CCD, so the image quality is exactly the same. The only difference is that the 70 has more features (and it comes with that high-capacity battery I mentioned earlier).

http://www.dvspot.com/reviews/canon/elura70-review/sample_movie.mov

Please note that this movie had to be compressed to make it small enough to put on the internet; the Elura 65's video isn't going to be all messed up like this is. You can get a really good idea from this video of how good the Elura's colors are, especially the lush green grass in the end.

DV is a heavily compressed format. 5 to 1 compression ratio. DV compression sucks compared to mpeg2. But its intra-frame meaning every frame is a complete picture, so thats why.