3 VideoCam's need advice

[FuryofFive]

This may be long..thanks to whomever reads it all

Im in the market for a better cam, i like to videotape all kinds of things, it not be professional, but i still would like the quality coming from a pv-gs9.
I do have some concerns, as i am not well versed in the details of a good and bad video cam
the 3 i have in mind are
Canon Vixia HF100, Sony HDR-SR11 and the Sony HDR-TG1

ive seen the quality of the HDR-TG1, and it was real good quality for a smaller cam

the first concern is, the ease of putting it on my laptop. i keep reading about how the sony's require the docking station, which may become an issue when im on the go

2nd is file format, if i know im recording for someone else, and not myself, id like to the option to toggle between formats, such as mpeg2 or avchd(or however it goes)

3rd is quality, id like the best quality i can go, like i mentioned above ive seen the TG-R1, i really would like the best quality out of the 3.

4th storage...i know the SR-11 has the 40gb HDD, but canon uses SD cards which would work very well with my laptop, with an SD card reader


now ive been really eyeballing the HDR-SR11, but at the same time, the HF100 is cheaper,smaller and has all the ports the HDR-SR11, but i cannot find sample vids to show the quality of each cam.

basically if any one of you that responds, were in my shoes, which would you buy? and maybe some details on why

again thank you for helping

 

[FuryofFive]

bump

 

[Kaido]

Go with the HF100. Super convenient and excellent quality. You can always convert the AVCHD into a different format later.

Also, get a good tripod for the best possible shots. You'll be amazed at the difference a tripod makes (especially a quality fluid-head model for video cams). And, a little trick - lay off the zoom. Hardly any filmmakers use the zoom feature, which I've found makes videos look a lot more professional because your brain is already used to TV Shows and Movies, which rarely use zoom.

 

[FuryofFive]

ahh ok. i was actually considering the SR-11, but also possible looking into the SR-1
is the ease of transfer easier with the HF100, and also.. is the video quality similar to the SR-11??? i also have touched and used both for short periods of time. went to best buy.. i noticed i kinda liked the feel of the SR-11, the touch screen was very easy to use, not to mention i can take pics while recording,i know the canon does it. the canon uses the button to navigate which kinda felt annoying to use.

 

[theblackbox]

i use an older sr 5 and love mine. avchd is fine if you are using a good editing package. i use final cut and it handles everything in the background, so the video comes over without any work. avchd is great t edit since it is so easy to pull it all over. i also used a canon but to get 24p required a little extra work, since the 24p they use is kinda like "sorta 24p" but i used cinema tools to telecine the footage and then managed to milk real 24p out of it. i saw a hv-20 the other day for under 400 bucks, what a great camera.
I looked at the sr-11, and it's a nice camera, they really did a good job at making the controls better and more accesable.

 

[FuryofFive]

i went off and bought an HF100

for a handful of reasons

flash memory, i can take out the SD card,pop it in my card reader, and pull the data right off the card
smaller, i had a pv-gs9, with a big battery(extended battery,offbrand) and it was kinda heavy, i will be picking up the extended battery for this, but it doesnt look much bigger
-lighter, like above all around smaller

price vs SR-11, the SR-11 is a great looking cam, but for the price i was able to buy all the extras i needed for about the price of the SR-11
another thing is that i didnt wanna be at the mercy of Sony if i ever ran into a problem with the HDD, that may not be the case for some of u, but it was for me