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Hi
If anyone uses one of these cameras. Could you send me a sample recording in SD mode in a quiet room? So I can get an idea of how noisy this camera is. Before I buy a HD30. I had a JVC GRD53 and a friend has the GRD850 and both where so noisy that if I had known this berofe I purchased the GRD53, I wouldn't have. On the HV20/30 forum some users have complaine of this issue. Email address: trueblueace@hotmail.com

Thanks for your help

Hi John,

I don't have an HV30 nor any sample footage, but if you haven't already read the camcorderinfo review article, you might find it of some use.

The low light capability of camcorders has always been overstated by the manufacturers, with claimed ratings of 1 lux for some past models. I believe digital camcorders generally have worse low light performance than their analogue predecessors.

One feature the HV30 does have, however, that can help, is the ability to shoot in 24p mode, though you might want to restrict that to scenes with not too much motion.

From what I've read, it's about as good in low light as any comparable consumer level HD camcorder, and of course it records in HDV mode, which is far better suited to editing than AVCHD.

I know Ken Berry has an HV20, so perhaps he might be able to comment on his own experience of low light use.

HV30 review in Camcorderinfo.com

2dogs
Thanks for your reply. I was interested in the amount of mechanical noise noise picked up by the microphone, as in a recording with no/or little ambient sound.

FWIW, I have a HV20 and have never noticed all mechanical noise at all... But then again, I never knew I was supposed to be listening for it!!

The miniDV camera that I have is noisy. I didn't listen for it either it was just that obvious that it could not be missed (from new). For instance in a room with a few people and all are talking the noise is not that obvious, but when everyone goes quiet for a moment the buzzing/hissing noise is very obvious and I noticed on the HV20/30 forum that some users have complained of the same issue with the microphone picking up this noise from the motors. Not all recordings are in a noisy enviroment. Sure I could mute the clip and place some music in, but this is not always appropriate.

JohnDale wrote:I was interested in the amount of mechanical noise noise picked up by the microphone, as in a recording with no/or little ambient sound.

Sorry John!

I was just obsessing about low light capabilities of camcorders again! Your mention of "noise" immediately made me interpret your description of a "quiet room" as a poorly lit room!

The good news is that the DV30 has an external mic input so you can use a boom mic to improve your audio. That's probably not much help for spontaneous stuff but very worthwhile for more planned productions.

The Canon HF-100 uses a different format and also uses HCSD cards for data storage, but is barely audible, even when zooming in and out.

Correction: the above applies to noise levels audible to this older user with ear pressed against exterior of camera. Now that I reread this thread, and see that the topic is about recorded noise levels in a fairly quiet environment, yes the audio does 'gain up" and record everything, including zooming motor noise.
JM_2

Thanks
The HV20/30 seems to be a very good camera in regards to video quality, but seeems to fall over in this regard. The issue is well documented on the HV20 forum. Even using an external mic they say it can still be a problem. One guy even made a extension to move the external mic further away from the camera.

Well, what can I say. After hearing of this criticism, I have just played back several clips, taken on several different mini DV tapes with my HV20, and I still cannot hear any background mechanical noise at all. So either I am deaf (and I don't believe I am) or else the people who detect these sounds are incredibly picky ...

Yeah you are probably right. The main thing is you are happy with it. What is the HDV format like for editing. Nowhere near as demanding as AVCHD?. Same as DV?.

It is VERY much easier to edit than AVCHD! Very similar to editing DV, though it is of course mpeg-2 and so, lossy. But if you maintain the original properties throughout, you will not notice any quality degradation with one or two recodes. The best part, of course, is that essentially any medium powered computer can handle it -- you don't need a Quad, or even a Core 2 Duo to edit it, let alone play it, as you do with AVCHD. And there are programs like the freeware HDVSplit, which captures and splits-by-scene at the same time, like you can using VS with DV -- only VS can't split either HDV or AVCHD by scene...

Depending on your point of view, there are a couple of 'negatives', though I don't find them so personally. First is that the format of HDV is 1440 x 1080, whereas high quality AVCHD uses 1920 x 1080, and with the latest Canons, the same bitrate of 24 Mbps (though I have never been able to get the two small samples of AVCHD I have from the Canon to even play properly, let alone edit...) Some would argue, though, that the quality of the HDV using that frame size is nonetheless at least as good as AVCHD.

The other downside of the HDV cameras is their size which is larger than most recent DV models, and very much larger than flash drive AVCHD cameras. Mind you, I still find my HV20 easier to handle because it *is* bigger. I can get a better grip, and in addition, it seems to have excellent stability control built into it. A friend of mine has a flash AVCHD video camera, and I have an older SD mpeg-4 flash camcorder about the same size. And I have to say I have trouble holding them firmly...

John, just a little heads up on the background noise concern you have.
Many consumer cams run on an automatic recording volume.

If you are videoing a room with a few people chatting the cam takes its cue from that ambient volume and adjusts accordingly.

However, if you put the cam in a very quiet room with no noise the auto gain goes through the roof and the cam starts to record the only sound available...itself!

It is one of the downsides to consumer cams. Check the cams in question and see if they have the ability to override the auto recording volume setting.