Posted by garyjpillon@yahoo.com on 08/20/07 05:23

The Sony is $1,600, plus filter set, spare batteries and charger,
tripod, head, etc. Editing programs are just now being modified to
manipulate the AVCHD MPEG-4 data stream
The XDCAM EX, at $8,000, is Sony's first ExpressCard camera. , but
its 1/2 inch chip block puts it in the Discovery HD, A&E, HD Net
range. All of its support gear will also be significantly more
expensive.
I'm reminded of the late Stephen St. Croix, who preached buying
first generation gear only if you could pay it off almost immediately.
Otherwise, he felt it better to wait for the third generation, when
all the bugs were worked out, and economies of scale drop the price
precipitously. If you follow that reasoning, the SR-8 makes a great
picture for a third the cost of the original Sony 3 chip consumer HDV
cameras. Taken to its logical conclusion, the Sony HDR HC-7
single chip HDV model is the third generation of HDV for the home. In
4 years, HDV has gone from untried technology to the long tail of
consumer HD.
In any case, these consumer models will have a "family
resemblance" to their more expensive siblings, and you can always rent
a better Sony when your projects have the budget for them.

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