I am looking for Digital video Camera, but I dont know which is bset with respect of Quality, features and price. Which one is best HDD / DVD? Tape? HD/ SD?
Pls advice Mini DV tapes are still the universal standard. Patterend after the DVCAM of the 1990s the use the same formate. Store in compress RIFF and WAVE and generate the universal editing container known as AVI
DVD uses the DVD book standard container of VOB which is only compatible with iDVD, free on the Mac, and paid software on the PC and it requires you import from the file folders chapter by chapter. Not all software handles VOB
You may need to convert first.
These use MPEG2 compression, which is lower in quality than RIFF compress.
DVDs provide 480 lines, while Mini DV is 520+ lines
Mini DVD only records 20-30 minutes, while Mini-DV tapes record 60 minutes.
Mini-DV tapes require transfer via FireWire and most computers need to install a FireWire card or attempt using a FireWire to USB cord or Hub. You also need a FireWire cord. Macs made after 2002 support FireWire directly.
Mini DVD and DVD are loaded via a computer DVD player and you must look through the file folders and extrac the VOB chapters one by one.
OR you can get a capture card or USB dangle from Pinnacle, Turtle Beach of Happauge and use the AV cables and import it as an AVI file, but you lose some quality that way.
HDD saves on MOD format, which is an MPEG2 files. I am told you can rename these files from .MOD to .MPG and then important them into SOFTWARE supporiting MPEG, which is generally paid software.
Theire quality is lower than Mini-DV because RIFF is better compression than MPEG
They generally don't view viewfinders only LCD screens.
They only support USB2 and AV cables.
USB2 while found on all computers is a slow port and you can experience drops frames, out of alignment audio.
Now, the downsides is all in the EDITING and IMPORTING TO COMPUTER REALM.
If you NEVER intend to do that, there are upsides to things.
DVDs play most most players made after 2006
HDD allows you to record 4 to 20 hours straight!
YOu can plug the AV cables into a set top DVD and then turn your 20 hours of video into 10 or 14 DVD disks. In REAL TIME.
The most interesting thing I've seen and the JURY IS STILL OUT because the camera isn't in stores yet.
Canon TX1
7 MP still camera that looks like one of the Aiptek $100 kids camcoders and acts the same way.
It uses SD cards up to 4GB (That cost $120 to $150).
It records HDV and SDV movies in AVI format at 30 FPS including 16:9 wide screen.
You can also drop the resolution and change formats, so it might be possible to make DIRECT YOU TUBE videos (no editing allowed) in the camera.
Since it's SD and most computers have SD slots, you can DRAG AND DROP the files.
Not sure if it allows optical zoom on video.
Haven't heard and static on it yet.
It's a wait and see thing, but at $500 it's interesting. Here's a helpful camcorder buying guide:
http://www.digitalvideoclub.com/basics/c...
and a list of the top camcorders for 2006:
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Cam... |
