On Fri, 24 Dec 1999 12:52:55 -0500, wrote:

>The classic question concerning new technology: Buy now and use or wait for
>prices to drop and technology to improve?? Any thoughts from those who have
>already bought or those still watching the technology/price curve drop would
>be appreciated.

I started shooting Mini-DV about three years ago (after
a couple of years with Hi-8, which I had little chance
of editing at moderate cost while having any hope of
maintaining satisfactory image quality in the finished
video), and started editing Mini-DV on the computer with
FireWire connection (DPS Spark card, with Premiere 4.2)
about two years ago (this was about two weeks before
[and about 6-months after DPS first offered a FireWire
card...] DPS offered a version of the Spark capture/play
software that worked reliably). Since then, we have built
a few Spark-based editing computers, and about 3/4 year
ago, a Raptor-based computer. Guess what? The "old"
Sony VX-1000 Mini-DV camcorder I started with has not
in any important way been outmoded by newer camcorders
(see my comparison of Mini-DV camcorders on my web
page, under "I babble"), and neither has the editing
system! Sure, hard-drives have gotten larger and cheaper,
CPU's have gotten faster, Premiere 5.1 has more useful
features (and more bugs...), the Raptor has some
nice user-friendly features, and some of the newer
camcorders have gotten smaller and cheaper - but for
recording basic high-quality video image and sound,
with practical, affordable means of editing them, little
has changed in terms of overall cost and result since
the medium first arrived, except for the arrival of
lower-end camcorders (which are not as good as what
was available...), and cheaper-but-more-limited
FireWire-equiped computers.
Jump in anytime! ;-)