I've been using this Canon ZR-20 for all my capturing but I think it is dying. I've also noticed that the camera I use makes a difference as far as dropped frames. One day I used my good Panasonic DVC-80 camera to capture and not one frame was dropped. But the ZR-20 does drop frames on every capture. So it's not just the speed of the hard drive and the computer hardware that plays a role in dropped frames.

I don't need high definition, as we only shoot instructional videos, not hollywood epics. I also use the Canon as a second camera for a small picture in picture type setup on some videos but it not being a 3CCD, it's not good quality.

So what I'm looking for is a decent quality, inexpensive, 3CCD camera that does well with capturing tape via firewire (doesn't drop frames)

Recommendations?

the camera I use makes a difference as far as dropped frames

With lower end cameras, ingesting tape shot on a different camera - especially if it's a different brand - can make minor imperfections into dropped frames.

I survived for two years without a deck for ingesting, and specifically used my main camera as ingest device. This may seem bizarre to some, but I rapidly adopted the 'ingest the whole tape in one fell swoop' habit: disks are cheap, I can do my selects faster on hard disk, and most importantly, it's so much gentler on the camera's tape mechanism than all that shuttling about for log and capture.

As for budget options, I wore my Sony PC-7 to a crisp as a pseudo-deck but always kept with Sony with a PC120, PDX-10 and then the Z1. I'd expect far more problems if I were shooting on Canon, ingesting on Sony or Panasonic, or whichever combination.

Thanks for that insight about the different brans thing. So if my main camera is my Panasonic DVC-80, I should go ahead and buy another Panasonic for the PIP camera and for capturing? Any recommendations?

I've been using an old JVC DVL320U (that I purchased used, for next to nothing) as a capture deck, for a couple years. It's worked well, for capturing DV footage shot with several different cameras.

There's always the potential for tape alignment issues between different cameras (even the same brand), but the number of CCDs in a camera has nothing whatsoever to do with the tape mechanism.

It sounds like the heads on your ZR-20 are probably just worn out.

Oh right, I know that the CCD has nothing to do with the capturing. I was just asking because I want to also use that camera as a second cam for occasional picture in picture stuff..

I'm looking at this one:

http://www2.panasonic.com/consumer-electronics/shop/Cameras-Camcorders/Camcorders/MiniDV-Camcorders/model.PV-GS320.S_11002_7000000000000005702#tabsection

PV-GS320

Just a small 3CCD camera, same brand as my DVC-80 (Panasonic)