Solid state all-digital camcorders

I know there's been discussion about what to acquire/use and after some research I settled on this neat device:
http://www.samsung.com/Products/Camc...C_X205LXAA.asp
Helmet-cam included, no tapes, no hard drives.
I tried getting my 10 year-old (periodically used) Hi-8 fixed but the repair was declined as unfeasibly expensive (something simple and mechanical). This looks like it'll be a cool toy for recording commutes and training on the bicycles.

I prefer mini dv

[SomeStrangeGuy]

Im so confused, I thought I replied to this?

Originally Posted by SomeStrangeGuy

Im so confused, I thought I replied to this?

You just did

[SomeStrangeGuy]

lol - I meant last night? I must be losing it...I had asked how much the extra lens thing was, and if he had put a bigger SD card in it yet to see how it goes.

Either way thanks for getting this because I've been eyeing it for awhile but not sure of it's quality. I just got an SD600 to use as my microcamera but damn them for still doing mp2.

The remote lens is included, I ordered more memory. Both should be here this week. From the descriptions I've read the quality no things like the Aiptek PVR are pretty spotty. It costs more therefore it must be better ;-)

[SomeStrangeGuy]

Originally Posted by esoteric

It costs more therefore it must be better ;-)

now you know why Im waiting for your full write up

I read some bad reviews (Image quality with the remote lens) of the SC-X105L. Let us know how this newer model works!

I'm thinking of a HDD cam... which ones are best?

[SomeStrangeGuy]

Originally Posted by phobiaphobe

I'm thinking of a HDD cam... which ones are best?

Well if I were buying one tomorrow it would be one that has the integrated hard disk drive. Thats the only way to go, would serve alot of advantages over a media type unit that you'd have to swap media on to continue a long capture. It also assures a faster encode/decode/swap/process time as well if you use a hard disk drive.

I haven't done alot of research, but I'd defientely get a camera with a hard disk drive for sure

[seamus]

I bought a digital video recorder that uses SD cards. 2GB cards are less than $100 ($20000CAD) now and hold about 5 hours MPEG4 video. I also have a miniDV camera. I'm working on mounting the bullet cam I bought in place of the cyclops light just below the windscreen.

Check out the "spy cam" websites. They have a lot of portable options. www.surveillance-spy-cameras.com is where I bought my camera and DVR.

It was "suggested" to me that the hard drive cameras won't take well to lots of rough use. They're also bigger and more expensive, neither of which are features I wanted The main camera is smaller than my regular slim wallet I carry.

The little Samsung records uninterpolated at 720x480 through the main lens and 352x240 through the auxilary. I rode with it today and the quality is nice and smooth. I'll upload some stuff sometime once I get the headset mounting figured out better. It's not the most spectacular device as far as any single feature is concerned (like many reviews say), but it seems to effectively fill the task it's marketed towards as a "sports" cam. It's pretty neat and seems well engineered.

Originally Posted by SomeStrangeGuy

...It also assures a faster encode/decode/swap/process time as well if you use a hard disk drive...

Quantify that, will you?
These things (this one at least) are encoding directly to .avi in the device. Copy it and play it/edit it, whatever. The only speed differences you'll probably see are in copying through USB 1, 2, firewire, etc.

One of my Archos mini DVR crapped out on me when I went for my first ride with it...I bought another one (not sure why) and I havent had the chance to test it yet. But it was suggested to me as well that hard drives are not the way to go on motorcycles...we will see shortly though.

I like the ruggedness of a flashram cam, but the capacity is still pretty small. The better HDD cams are 30 gig.

Seamus: 5 hours of video at what resolution?

Originally Posted by smoothrideronli

One of my Archos mini DVR crapped out on me when I went for my first ride with it...I bought another one (not sure why) and I havent had the chance to test it yet. But it was suggested to me as well that hard drives are not the way to go on motorcycles...we will see shortly though.

That's what I'm worried about... that the vibes would ruin the hard disk.

Originally Posted by phobiaphobe

That's what I'm worried about... that the vibes would ruin the hard disk.

I thought a guy like you only had... good vibrations...

Originally Posted by esoteric

I thought a guy like you only had... good vibrations...

I thought the same about myself until I got a hard disk error...

[seamus]

Originally Posted by phobiaphobe

Seamus: 5 hours of video at what resolution?

320x240 with video data rate of 1054kbps. I mistyped, it's 4 hours.

Ended up just buying a new Elph SD700IS... their top of the line point-and-shoot, with image stabilization. Picked up a pair of 2Gb cards, good for about an hour of 640x480 video each. Really cool toy.

The more I looked at stuff, the less sense it made to own a camcorder and a still... The DVD and HDD cams can take stills, but not very high res. Plus, all the fragile moving parts could cavitate from the high-frequency vibes when mounted on the motorcycle. This little elph will take just as good of video as any of the non-HD camcorders, albeit maybe with lower sound quality.

THe Samsung sport cam is cool, but a bit pointless IMO. It does everything... video, still, MP3, voice recording, whatever. Only problem is that it doesn't do any of those things particularly well. It only takes stills up to 800x600 and it's $100 more than the elph.

So... gotta go start a thread to sell my old Canon.