Opinions on Sony HDR-CX550V?

[angelah100]

Am shopping for an HD camcorder. The Sony HDR-CX550V has gotten good reviews, as has the Panasonic TM700. Does anyone on this forum own the Sony? If so, anything you dislike about it? Or love about it? Thanks.

[colbykenyon]

Hi. I looked very closely at both of these cameras as well (disclaimer: I'm a begginer when it comes to camcorders). The Sony was much more user friendlly and seemed to have more options, but I went with the Panasonic TM700 because it has a microphone jack. I've been told that this will provide better audio than the expensive wireless mic's you can get for the Sony (though I personally don't know for sure). I've only had the Panasonic for a few days now and have been shooting a lot. The options are fairly basic and the manual is not very informative; however, on video and audio quality, it delivers. In fact, I put it head to head with an albeit cheaper model by Canon (the HM31) and the Panasonic performed MUCH better on audio when recording in quiet rooms. So don't expect to be blown away by the Panaosonic's features, but the sound and picture are great. As for the Sony, I don't know.

Colby

[Chuck Engels]

Doesn't anyone look at the tape based camcorders anymore? The HV40 is an awesome camcorder for the price and it works flawlessly with Premiere Elements, Vegas, Premiere Pro, Final Cut and Final Cut Express, not to mention just about any other video editor.
Camcorders that connect via Firewire are most compatible with video editing software. It takes more time to capture but I think having fewer headaches while editing is well worth it

Just one man's opinion...