I think I've got about everything required for my project by now... except for some storage solution for all the footage I hope to shoot?
While on paper it's supposedly possible to copy video clips directly from the Sanyo Xacti HD1000 camcorder to any external hard disk drive, in practice this isn't quite so straight-forward: For this easy transfer to work, the HDD must have its own power source. Mobile drives however typically rely on their host for power. And self-sufficient desktop drives aren't really meant to be lugged around. Using a media-storage-device with incorporated card-reader isn't that obvious either, as most of these apparently do not yet support SDHC.
So, either I'll have to regularly copy all my raw footage onto a PC in some internet café in order to then burn it onto a DVD (leaving me with only one copy in the end) or, I must bring my own laptop. The latter would allow me to better manage my project, pre-view & pre-edit any footage, letting me save to HDD & backing up to DVD only what is worth to be kept. Immediate feedback would also allow for corrective measures in case some scenes need to be redone. This kind of quality control just isn't feasible on the camcorder's small LCD.
Bring my own laptop? Easier said than done. Apple's pre-intel PowerBook G4, which served me well before, alas lacks the required processor power to handle HD video, not to mention the necessary HDD capacity for a five week shoot. Apple's cheapest MacBook comes with a ComboDrive which can read but not write DVDs, making it a no go. The standard model with SuperDrive has been out of stock for more than a month. The previous edition with SuperDrive still comes with Mac OS X 10.4 (read: without iMovie '08), another no go. The Pro models, besides being totally outdated, are way too expensive to even be considered for the job. And with all the rumors of new ones being on their way, buying anything now isn't really recommended.
