Camcorders forum: Please help a noob shooting sporting/HD cam quest

For the most part, they will be pretty similar... image-wise.

The Canon HV20 has a built-in video lamp - that is effective up to 4.9 feet away. In my book, I would rather rely on an external light. No advantage to either camera.

The Sony HDR-HC7 has a proper mic-in jack; the HC5 does not (only the Sony Proprietary active interface). Canon HV20 has a mic-in jack. Drop the HC5 from the list.

The HC7 and HV20 both have 10x zoom. Whichever camera you get, turn digital zoom off. This is a tie.

The HC7 has a LANC terminal. I use mine all the time. It is a wired remote to control zoom (and can also take stills while capturing video and turn the camera on/off standby mode - but don't get the one built-in to the tripod). Advantage to Sony.

The HC7 has a "smooth slow record" feature. HV20 does not. Advantage Sony.

On to your computer...
You *should* be OK. Importing hidef video will not be real-time... 1 hour of video could take about 2 hours to import. 1 hour of hidef video will take a little over 30 gig of hard drive space - I would strongly suggest and external FireWire drive just for the video projects... 250 gig minimum. The laptop hard drives don't spin as fast as a decent 3.5 in full sized hard drive that should be in the external case. High definition video takes up about 3x more space than standard definition video - so you want the fastest drives and CPUs you can afford.

Your concern about downsampling to standard definition is valid - but unfounded. The video editing and DVD burning apps you have will take care of that for you on their own. Outputting the final project (no DVD menuing or anything like that) back out to the camera onto a miniDV tape over the FireWire cable will give you the basis for the hidef version when you are ready to get that DVD burner - just re-import it when that time comes, then burn out to the HD or BluRay DVD burner connected to your computer. In the meantime, you can connect the camcorder via HDMI or component cables to a HDTV for hidef playback of that tape-based final export.

Accessories:
That you are remembering to include "lenses/filters/mic/bag/battery" is good. Don't forget a tripod. I understand the potential venue limitations - There is NO handheld camcorder that will steady the shots you think you want - with any kind of stabilization. If the tripod is not do-able, how about a shoulder mount like a Spiderbrace? http://spiderbrace.com/

There are different kinds of mics... check the posting in the Camera forum sticky. A shotgun may be appropriate... a stereo shotgun will be expensive. Take a look at the NRG SA-800 or SA-568 at http://www.nrgresearch.com/ Audio-Technica makes great mics, too... If you mount a mic to the camera, consider using a camera bracket like this one: http://www.adorama.com/SVAS.html?searchinfo=angled%20camera%20bracket&item_no=313 along with a shock mount like the Sabra SMM-1 http://www.transaudiogroup.com/sabra_som.shtml

Given your known shooting situation, consider a video light... I have no specific recommendations - but an off-board light is likely best as it will not impact the camera's battery time.

I have not used ANY of the listed models - I currently use a Sony HDR-HC1 - the camera BEFORE the HC3, 5 and 7... and I like it a lot - it is the consumer-version sibling of the HVR-A1.

Suggestions:
Learn to pan s l o w l y.
Resist the urge to use the zoom... but if you must, do it s l o w l y.

Good luck!

to "explain" 24p and all the other permutations, advantages, disadvantages and reasons for progressive vs interlaced. Wikipedia does a good job of that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24p and I know there are others who frequent this board who will do a better job of explaining than I... there are lots of web resources, too...

For YOUR needs, I believe 24p is not applicable. For YOUR needs specifically, high-speed motion, 24p is not what you want to be recording at or outputting to... which is why it was not part of the comparison in the previous post. As you indicate, "whoever I talk to, they say that the HC7 and the HV20 are pretty much equal as far as picture quality and OIS, color and featureset"... which leaves two features the HC7 has that the HV20 does not - that apply to your shooting environment: LANC and "smooth slow record".

Even if you don't use "smooth slow record" (I understand the video quality is not that good when the slow motion plays back)... that LANC will be a very useful item and I strongly recommend it. I use mine ALL the time.

Neither camera has great manual controls - or access to them. They are consumer-grade. The LANC is what pushes me in the Sony direction in this particular case...

Wrong camera!