Thoughts on Sony HDR-SR12 and appropriate housing?

[bfowles]

Thanks!!!!!

So can you give me a rough estimate on recording times - how much have you ever put on the hard drive, how many minutes, and how much of the hard drive did it use? Just wondering about how much the camcorder can hold before downloading. On a vacation, I won't be downloading all week, and if I am doing 3-4 dives per day recording about an hour worth of video each day for 5 days - is that an issue?

How long does it take to download that much info from the camcorder? I am guessing it stores it all as one file. Right? Do you usually download daily or at the end of a trip?

I know when I do my tapes, I usually do 1 tape per day (never really filling up a whole tape). When I download to my computer, using Pinnacle Studio program, it basically just plays the video and downloads it at that exact speed. So an hours worth of video downloads in an hour. Is it the same way with the hard drive camcorders or do they download faster? Slower?

Have you ever lost any data?

robin

Download times will depend on the speed of your HDD on your computer (The transfer rates are a lot better than tape as it doesn't need to be transfered by playback), when I went to Indonesia I didn't download the video until I got back home. I cant remember how long it took to download 40Gig. The camera allows you to do some in camera editing so it is possible to remove footage you dont want. The other option is to record to the memory stick. This was my fallback option as I have a portable HDD that I can backup the card onto.

Byron

 

[robint]

thanks sjspeck - glad to hear it stores it as segments, like tape recordings do. I like that in Pinnacle, when editing, I get a still shot of each segment and I can scroll through them to pick out what scenes I want to edit from. I have learned over the past 3 years to make sure I put camcorder in standby to mark those segments. (I made the mistake on my first trip to let the tape run for 20 minutes straight one dive and editing from that was a PITA. :shocked2

Download times will depend on the speed of your HDD on your computer (The transfer rates are a lot better than tape as it doesn't need to be transfered by playback), when I went to Indonesia I didn't download the video until I got back home. I cant remember how long it took to download 40Gig. The camera allows you to do some in camera editing so it is possible to remove footage you dont want. The other option is to record to the memory stick. This was my fallback option as I have a portable HDD that I can backup the card onto.

Byron

thanks. I am still not sure if I want to switch from tape to HDD, I like the permanence of tapes. Do you ever archive your raw data anywhere? DVD? portable hard drive? I am just curious how people are handling this issue. Or does everyone just delete all their raw recorded data after they have edited it down?

thanks!
robin

 

[bfowles]

Currently I am backing up my old videos on a portable HDD, but I may eventually backup my footage on blu-ray. Of course that means I need to buy a blu-ray burner first.

 

[diversteve]

Robin,

I used to capture in Pinnacle 9 a few years ago. When capturing long segments, if you hit the space bar, it started a new segment in the editing window. Does that still work?

Do you have Frys Electronics in Albuquerque? They have an off-brand 1TB USB 2.0 drive for $109. A WD or Seagate 1TB drive was $139 or $169 - I think they had Firewire connections also. I just bought a 500GB "My Passport" USB 2.0 external drive for $89 at Best Buy to free up space on my editing PC. Prior to this I've just been keeping all my master tapes.

 

[robint]

Robin,

I used to capture in Pinnacle 9 a few years ago. When capturing long segments, if you hit the space bar, it started a new segment in the editing window. Does that still work?

Do you have Frys Electronics in Albuquerque? They have an off-brand 1TB USB 2.0 drive for $109. A WD or Seagate 1TB drive was $139 or $169 - I think they had Firewire connections also. I just bought a 500GB "My Passport" USB 2.0 external drive for $89 at Best Buy to free up space on my editing PC. Prior to this I've just been keeping all my master tapes.

I don't think so. The thing that bothers me the most about capturing long segments is when I am scrolling thru the clips, I can't remember what I saw on the long segments so when I want to edit a clip out of it I have to watch the whole thing to find it. I end up watching the same long segment over and over to pull clips out. It's just a big hassle to me. I like having all my clips at less than 5 minutes - easier to edit and you also know what it in each clip by looking at the snapshot shown in the clip window.

As far as buying an external hard drive for storage... I have considered it but haven't done any serious searching. With tape, i just keep all my original tapes and never reuse them. So I have a box of the past 3 years tapes (only about 2 dozen) so if I ever want to go back and re-edit a video (which I always say I am going to do!) I have the original raw footage.

thanks everybody.......... I think I am getting some good info here and I might make a decision soon.

robin

 

[ronscuba]

Editing 5 minute clips ? Wow, you have way more patience than me.

I tend NOT to let my camcorder "roll" when recording. I start/stop recording frequently. My editing software detects the start/stop when capturing and creates a separate clip each time. Most of my clips are 30-60 seconds unless I recorded something really good.

For a week long trip, I create folders on my hard drive: reef, eels, lobsters, crabs, divers, topside, turtle, night, etc.. and put the clips into the folders. For me, the time spent organizing upfront pays off later during editing.

BTW, I think B&H is offering Sony Vegas SW bundled with the HC9 or SR12 for a pretty good price.

 

[bpotter1956]

I have been waiting for a DIVER to tell us about how easy/hard it is to edit videos, how long it takes to download the data to computer or laptop on a trip or when they get home, etc. But no one has posted anything about it!!!!!!!!!!!!
Come on guys, I know you are out there.......... inquiring minds want to know!


bpotter1956 - the Seatool housings look nice and they are very small, but out of my price range. Do the camcorders overheat in that small package causing any fogging? Do you have the SR12? How do you like it? Care to comment on my questions above? Just wondering.

No problem with fogging or overheating. I have the SR7 and it is a nice camera with good low light level performance. I edit video with Pinnacle Studio 12 .... underwater editing can be challenging in that the colors from shot to shot can change quite a bit. You need to learn the right adjustments to bring out the colors without making it look fake.

 

[bottomfeeder22]

Thanks for all the input everyone - I just ordered the Ike housing and will be getting the SR12 next week. Going to edit with Vegas Platinum, I'll post up results (and vimeos) of my experience after my mid-Feb trip to Key Largo. This will be my first experience with u/w videography and editing, so it will be a lot of learning!

 

[uzun]

It's a bit late, but I would choose the Light & Motion housing over the ikelite. I prefer the touch controls to be easily accessible on the handle, and they offer integrated lighting that works from the same handle mounted controls.

 

[dpwheeler]

Hi Everyone - Interseting reading. I also just purchased a HDR-SR12 and am the decision making stage for a housing. I chose the SR-12 because of the 10.2 mega pixels. No one has metioned the Equinox HD-6 housing??? Also I am thinking a LED light systm woukd be the way to go as it is much easier on batteries. I shot lots of video with a Sony Super 8 in a Hypertech housing years ago and am anxious to get back into it with some modern gear. - Any and all advice appreciated - Dave