What tapeless camcorder doesn't stall the video when taking a still?

I just got the HD1A, and would be perfectly happy with it but for the fact that when you take a still while taping it stalls the video for 2 seconds while it's writing the image. I don't know why I never saw this mentioned anywhere and it drives me absolutely nuts. I want a hybrid so I can take pictures while I video. I'm more a camera person than video, but want video capability for my baby. The lowlight of the HD1A is about as low as I can stand (reminds me very much of my Nikon Coolpix 5700, though the HD1A is actually easier to adjust to get decent footage). I hate tapes, so DVD, media card, or hd. I have a Mac and PC (and Win on the Mac, love the irony there), but would much rather use the Mac (and I know Sonys have issues with Macs). Any insight would be most appreciated.

Well, Anna, if you are planning to do any editing, you'll probably grow to hate tapeless video more than you do tapes. This is largely because most hard drive based and dvd camcorders record in MPEG2.

If you want to shoot video and then edit it to take out wasted scenes, add titles and music, etc., you're taking a hit in video quality by shooting native with a DVD camera. This is because the video on DVDs is encoded to MPEG2, a compressed format. It's great as an end of the line format, but not for shooting source footage. Likewise, hard drive based camcorders, while convenient, tend to record in MPEG2 (only JVC's Everio line gives you an option to record in AVI). This gives you the same problem. Additionally, you will also have to "re-encode" (also called demuxing) the footage into an editable format. It's a hassle for those of us who wish to edit our videos as a hobby.

And Media Card camcorders usually shoot in MPEG4, yet another compressed format.

Oppositely, miniDV cameras are much more robust. Cameras like the Elura 100 are much better in format because once you've captured, edited and then burned to DVD, you aren't recompressing already compressed footage, like using the DVD camera would force you into.

So as much as you don't care for tape based camcorders, they're still the best bet for video editing. IMHO. Not what you wanted to hear, I'm sure. But at least some, like the Canon Elura also shoot still shots on a separate SD card.

It also has widescreen ability, image stabilization, recording in Dolby, and a nifty little feature called analog to digital pass through, which enables you to take those home movies you have on VHS and capture them onto your PC by daisy chaining your VCR through the camera and into the PC via firewire. Then you can edit and burn to DVD as well. Great feature.

HD variant would be the HV10.

And it's VERY compatible with that MAC of yours.

BTW - I noticed that you haven't marked any replies as the "best answer." Are you still looking for an answer? If so, I recommend you re-submit it on http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com so it will have a better chance of being noticed. These days it looks like most questions are being answered within a few days.

If you're happy with the answer you received, you can simply click on "Mark for best answer" bubble and it will close out the question. Thanks for posting it and Good luck!