Anybody own one? I just ordered mine and can't wait to get it! I've been spending some time on the forums (<a href="http://www.hv20.com" target="_blank">www.hv20.com</a>) and everybody has been very informative and helpful. <BR> <BR>Some places (Best Buy) are starting to discontinue them so I'm glad I got it now! The deals are great as well...paid $608 including shipping and tax.

Wow great price. I got the hv10 about a week ago and I love it. After a lot of research I picked the hv10 because "they" say it handles fast movement without the HD jump you get sometimes. Havent used it for wakeboarding yet but shot my son's high school basketball game last night and it turned out awesome.

I've been shooting with an HV10 since early last year when they came out, it's an amazing little cam with it's chip size and super fast AF. The HV20 is basically the same lens/chip in a different body but for most purposes they are the same as far as the final results go. I've found for shooting wakeboarding (and most outdoor stuff) I keep an ND.6 filter on it and put it in manual mode. Try and make sure the zebras don't come on much and you'll get reasonably good color out of it. Since HDV handles motion so poorly I try and pan on the rider totally so he is not moving around a lot in the frame and just let the BG blur out. The biggest challenge is getting decent slomo in post with HDV footage.

where did you find it for $608

6th Avenue Electronics. I've dealt with them in the past with good results. They have a 8.5 rating on Reseller Ratings I believe. There was a coupon posted on the HV20 site. <BR> <BR>Check the "Where to Buy" threads on the website for some good deals. B&amp;H is back up to $700 so 6th Avenue is definitely the best deal right now.

Rich, I've been looking at high def cams for a while trying to figure out what will suit my needs best, and I've run across a lot of your posts, which are always great. If you don't mind, I have a couple of questions for you. <BR> <BR>1. could you give me a quick breakdown of your post processing and editing process, as far as what formats, frame rates, etc. you use to get the best performance for wakeboard/fast motion footage? <BR> <BR>2. If HDV format is the problem as far as fast motion footage is concerned, does this mean that even a more expensive high def. camera will have the same problems? What improvements, video quality wise, will a more expensive camera give you in comparison to a hv20 type camera?

1) I use Final Cut Pro to do all my editing. With an HV10/20 or most HDV cams the video only comes off tape in one flavor which is 1080 60i. Usually for WB footage that's getting a lot of slomo I'll transcode it to HDPro 720P 60 (the Panasonic codec) using another Apple program Compressor. I'll also use compressor with it's optical flow technology to retime it as well unless it looks decent using FCP's retiming commands. <BR> <BR>I use a Magic Bullet plugin called Colorista to color correct any footage that needs it. The latest version of FCP: final cut Studio includes a program called Color that I'd probably use if I bothered to upgrade though. The above is a very time consuming process however. If you're just going to the web you probably don't need to do all lot of that. <BR> <BR>2) The HDPro 720P 60 format which comes with the Panasonic HVX200 is IMHO the absolute best HD codec to record motion/sports footage to bar none because it's an I frame codec that's compressed enough to make it very processor friendly, plus 60 progressive frames a second gives you a lot of information to work with. Other HVX owners may argue with that but that's my take after having shot them all. <BR> <BR>The higher end pro or prosumer camcorders give you a lot more control over your picture then you'll get with a total consumer cam. You'd be surprised how many pros are buying these cheap Canon and Sony HD cams though for guerilla/crash cams. Shot right, the footage intercuts decently with the higher end stuff.

So I am probably going to buy a HV20, I found some on Thecameraprofessionals.com for $499. Just wondering if anyone has bought anything from this website, it says the camera is new, but it just seems to cheap to be true, what do you guys think?

Check <a href="http://www.resellerratings.com" target="_blank">www.resellerratings.com</a>. They have a rating of 1 out of 10...not good. I would look somewhere else. Unfortunately the HV20 has gone back up in price due to demand and lack of availability I think. You would have thought they would be going down since the newer HV30 was released, but that has not been the case. <BR> <BR>Great camera though!

Ya I ended up finding that website through hv20.com, and just ordered it for 729 from circuit city