HD Camcorder... Which one?

[Evening Star]

L&G.

I'm looking for a HD Camcorder, which shoots in 1920 x 1080p, preferably in AVCHD or MP4 formats. I have a maximum budget of £800, maybe £825 absolute maximum.

Any suggestions/recommendations please?

[@Lee]

I bought myself a JVC Evirio with 80Gb HD and micro SD card slot about 3 years ago, very pleased with it and it can record in both AVCHD and (I think) MP4 but the file extension is .TOD or .MOV which IIRC are there own file extension names. The software that came with it was TBH not that great so ditched that. On the whole it's been a great little camera and back then it was ~£375. For your budget, and the way tech has moved on in those three years, you should be able to get an almost, if not as good as, studio quality cam. If I was to start looking around again, I would probably go for another JVC. The only downside I have with mine was battery life, ~ 40 -50 mins on a full charge. I bought an after market battery which at least doubled that time. It's still in regular use and has performed without fault.

[Evening Star]

I've had a look at them and then had a look at some of the reviews, they're OK, not outstanding though.

I've had a look at Sony, but for some inexplicable reason they have a cable sticking out of the side of them and you have to poke into the camcorder grip for storage.

To me that is just asking to be hooked & ripped off! So that's a definite NO!

[Chris GB]

Can you squeeze a Panasonic SD 900 into your budget?

Chris

[Evening Star]

Yep! I can also squeeze in the X900 too & the X900M if I'm canny.