Hi Chris,
The popular choice of solid state SD/HDV for UK HE at the moment is
Sony’s new range of medium-priced ‘Z’ cams.
https://www.sony.co.uk/biz/view/ShowProductCategory.action?site=biz_en_GB&category=HDVCamcorders
The solid state unit records to either AVI or RAW DV. Record
to it in either DV, DVCAM or HDV mode. When attached to a PC
it behaves as a harddrive and you simply drag the AVIs over.
You can record to tape (as a back up) whilst recording to
to solid state simultaneously.
S270E/Z7 range also accepts cheap non-Sony memory cards.
We’ve been using the shoulder mounted S270E and Z7E for a while —
sports, broadcast, educational etc. — and…they’ve never let
us down — and they are the perfect option for you really —
but given our choice again, I would have saved our (low-end)
budget for a little while longer.
I won’t bother listing my quibbles, but several options are:
Panasonic AG range: supported by Prem CS, P2 cards expensive.
https://www.panasonic.com/business/provideo/p2-hd/index.asp
HD XDCAM: records to reasonably-priced harddiscs, supported by
Prem CS, but probably overkill for everyday student use. The
new F800 is lovely, though, for the price.
https://www.sony.co.uk/biz/view/ShowProduct.action?product=PDW-F800&site=biz_en_GB&pageType=Overview&imageType=Main&category=XDCAMCamcorders
JVC GY range: medium priced cameras — we used these (and
the Z7s) for an entire season of super league rugby. Older
models only recorded a SD or 720p HDV image to small miniDV/HDV
tapes, newer models support a harddrive which fits on the
back. They’re funny to look at when fully kitted up — they
look like bazookas — but saying that, they use CCD chips as
opposed to the Z7s’ CMOS, and frankly, I still prefer CCD
regardless of Sony’s dabbling with CMOS technology. The
harddrive records to XDCAM format supported by Prem CS.
https://pro.jvc.com/prof/attributes/features.jsp?model_id=MDL101824
Suggest using the HDV forum for specifics.
Cheers,
Darren.
Super League, S270E and JVC GY

youtube.com/darrenpce