Sony HDR SR8 I want one of these

[Dion]

Been looking at handy cams lately, not that I have the money but it would be nice for research purposes and have stumbled upon this great cam the Sony HDR SR8 it does night vision in HD, Takes 6.1 Digital still images, 20x Digital zoom all in a very small package. Here the link it will fetch around $1830 not cheap in my opinion but it would be awesome for research http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Sony-HDR-SR8-Han ... dZViewItem

just wish i had the spare doe!

[Stainmaster]

very nice i want one of these :-)

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/GHOST-HUNTING-TH ... p1638.m122

[Dion]

Hey Cass

You certainly know your cameras and optical devices. I have a 7.1 mega pixel camera with optical and digital zoom and as though it works very well it certainly has it flaws. Camera shake is one; a loss of pixels in digital is another. But it does my usage good enough and keeps me very happy.

Good write up

[Yowielover1]

Canon HG10 is an affordable HD alternative with 10x optical zoom. Though the still pictures arent that great 3.61MP you don't really buy a video camera for stills. Never use digital zoom, its a gimic and you will regret it.

[TWMcCallum]

Sony handi cams have had the Nightshot feature for a while, I have one of the mini DV models. It is a good camera but the Nightshot feature has only a very short range, limited by the field of illumination that the built in IR lamp lights. I don't know if this field could be improved if one were to use an external IR light with a greater range. I believe that the resolution is better on the mini DV cameras than the digital ones. I think that has to do with the way the image is recorded rather than the quality of lenses or cmos. I'd be careful about buying the Sony if it is the Nightshot feature that you are interested in, it is good for what it is designed to do, and that is close up low light happy snaps and not long range night wild life filming. A feature that I would look for in a video camera is the ability to plug in an external mic, the one I have does not have this feature and I found it hard to record what people were saying while I filmed them. I made a short video of my trip up to the Blue Mountains with my Handi cam, I interviewd Neil Frost and he showed us a few areas where yowie related things happened. I am reluctant to post it on the internet though because some of the people involved don't want to be seen publicly and the background tracks are off a well known Aboriginal Didge players album. The video comes over as a little bit less of a serious look at the subject than I feel would be appreciated by those involved so it is for my entertainment only.