I can see an argument for a docking station. When capturing to my PC, all
the controls are on one side of the camcorder, and the firewire (and all
other connections with the exception of power) on the other. I soon
started to get concerned about the possibility of damaging the firewire
socket on the camcorder. I spent some time in designing and making an
"editing stand" that supports the camcorder at an ergonomic angle, all
controls visible, with the firewire outlet on the reverse, but above the
desk.
You risk damaging the power lead socket having to remove it "before"
undocking the camera every time you want to swap films. I just spent an
afternoon transferring 10 tapes to the PC. I could do that without
unplugging anything when the leads plugged in the camera!




Also widescreen does drive you to want to film a wider field of view, and
for that you need an add on wide lens. I have seen one make of widescreen
cam due out this month which include that for free!

Though I concede that a wide-angle lens is one of the best and useful
accessories, you don't actually need one to benefit from shooting
wide-screen if your camcorder has it.

Using widescreen makes you want to "Frame" the image for widescreen. It's
this which makes you realise that the 40+ equivalent 35mm lens is too
narrow. Anyone taking landscape or building photographs would reach for a
20-28mm lens.


Also why is that cameras which are not "budget" models still come with the
"composite" only cable. Anyone buying a widescreen cam will have a
widescreen TV with s-video inputs, and expect to use that! So that's
another extra you have to get.

I suppose you could argue that they should include a firewire cable (and
perhaps a firewire card). However, I think I'd dispute that most
wide-screen TVs come with S-video.

--
Tony Morgan
http://www.rhylonline.com

There hidden under the flap at the front. I hav'nt seen a single TV with
front AV input's without s-video, and most widescreen sets come with front
inputs.

As far as the rest of the world is concerend RGB is not "the" input of
choice. S-video is! Just look at all those expensive AV amps with switchable
s-video sockets. My panny has a crap over saturated RGB input which is only
any good for an old fashioned ping-pong game device. But it's s-video input
is superb, much better than any I've seen on "european" designed sets.