1. I was going to get the Panasonic GS320, but read in the forums that there were numerous problems using it with Vista. Are there any problems using Vista with the Canon HV30? Does the HV30 work well with Premiere Elements, which is my preferred software?

2. In reading the forums, half the people say go with MiniDV because it uses tapes. Many have recommended the Canon HV30. The other half say go with HDD, so I looked at the Sony SR85.

3. I leave in two more weeks to go to Moscow. The HDD is very appealing but so is the Canon Mini. I have Windows XP - VISTA. I also have Premiere Elements for my software. I want to buy a nice camcorder, go to Moscow, come home, get video onto the PC via USB or Firewire, do some editing, burn a DVD, sit back and enjoy. I DON'T WANT PROBLEMS WITH THIS THING !!! I'm tired of listening to salesmen try and sell me something and not care if it's not compatible with Vista, etc.

4. And, I'd really like to know - why do so many people, on so many different forms, say go with 'tape'. Other than not having to mess with tapes, etc., what's so wrong with going with HDD?

5. How come the HV20 can't be found in any of the stores. Even those online - and prices are more expensive than HV30. Why don't stores carry both models or at least make it easy to obtain online. OF course, I'm not really sure which online stores are safe.

Thank you so much. I'm figuring that all you experts in the Canon HDV Forum might know some of the answers. I sure appreciate the help. I've been researching which camcorder to buy for well over 6 weeks.

Karen

I have an HV20 camcorder which is basically the same as HV30 and I am using it with vista for a year now and I didn't have a single problem. HV30 will work with Adobe Premiere which supports HDV.

As for tape vs HDD. Currently tape based HD camcorders which have HDV compression performs better than HDD HD camcorders which have AVCHD compression. Also tape is very convenient for archiving your video. If you still prefer HDD I would suggest you to check Canon HF10 which is currently, IMO, the best AVCHD consumer camcorder in the market.

HV20 is replaced by HV30 and it is not manufactured any more so based on the equilibrium theory when the supply goes down and the demand still exists, the price will go up.

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I want a red cam

If you go with an HDD cam make sure you have a plan for when the drive gets full. For some that means bringing along a laptop to copy your video to so you can delete the files on the cam for more shooting. To me that is a royal pain. Tapes are so easy to carry that you can bring along plenty so you never run out of recording media. I don't know if this will be a factor in Moscow. Even if you do find yourself running short, you can buy miniDV tapes just about anywhere.

The other big issue with HDD cams is that hard drives can fail. If it does you may lose several (many?) hours of video. With tape, a failure usually results in a few frames (fraction of a second) being lost.

Some things to consider before buying.

Good luck.

Dennis