Well I decided to buy myself a Sony HDR-HC1 HDV (high definition) video camera yesterday. I was considering saving my money and grabbing a normal standard definition MiniDV camera but decided that the extra $1000 or so was worth it to get something where my footage would be of a quality to last for many years to come. The camera itself cost $2700 but as always these days you have to grab lots of accessories that aren’t included in the box. The battery it came with only lasts for 45 minutes!! I grabbed one which apparently lasts for 3 hours.

I did some filming up in the Dandenongs yesterday and have been playing around with it today. The quality is fantastic… 1920×1080 – bigger than my 1280×1024 display. Pretty impressive! I am amazed at how the gap between ‘consumer’ video cameras and pro video/film cameras is getting smaller. Although there still is still a noticeable quality difference between film/high end HD cameras and HDV, the HDV footage holds up extremely well. And to think only 10 or so years ago consumers would only have been able to record at VHS or similar quality! These days a filmmaker can take fantastic footage on a very limited budget. Great for us independent filmmakers!

Here is a quick still of a composite I did of a couple scenes. The full resolution link is way less than HD resolution. I will get some movies up here sometime soon…