skymiles 3 #1 July 26, 2005 Sony camcorders are by far the most popular camcorders used in skydiving. In fact, most helmet manufactures only build d-boxes for Sonys. They are compact and have features suitable for skydiving like manual focus, LANC port, and firewire compatibility with other Sonys. However, based on my review of this forum, the main reason for Sony’s popularity appears to be their durability. While others crap out after one season, Sonys keep going year after year. Is this true? The reason I ask is that Sony appears to have lost its way. The PC55 won’t take a wide angle lens and, while the PC1000 is a great camera, it is larger and has a shorter battery life than the one it replaced. Furthermore, the HC42 is essentially a reworked PC109. Other manufactures such as JVC and Canon, seem to offer more choices (top and side mount) with higher resolution for a less money, in other words, more bang-for-the-buck. If you have had a good or bad experience with JVCs, Canons or Panasonics, I would like to hear from you. Please be specific about the model. Lastly, JVC has come out with the “Everio” line of camcorders that uses a 4GB micro-hard drive instead of miniDV tapes. Any good? Phil Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PhreeZone 20 #2 July 26, 2005 Quick comment, mircodrives will not work reliability atr altitude. They rely on a layer of air to keep the heads from hitting the platters of the hard drive, thin out the air and you can ruin the hard drive by spinning it up at altitude.Yesterday is history And tomorrow is a mystery Parachutemanuals.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pope 0 #3 July 26, 2005 IMO, brands to stay away from are: JVC and Samsung--Across the board. Canon has a couple of OK models and I would use the newish 3CCD Panasonic. I have experience with many of the above brands and Panasonic is *by far* the only one I'd give money to. Right now I use 3 Sony cams and one Panasonic cam (mostly Pana). pope Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AiRpollUtiOn 0 #4 August 8, 2005 JVC has a lot of condense-issues, the Canon-ones seem to be doing well. As for me, I just stick to SONY, never change a winning team..."Don't make me come down there" - God. My site:http://www.skystudio.nl/video.html Some of my vids: http://www.youtube.com/user/TomSkyStudio Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
