Which Video Camcorder

Video Camcorders : 

Video Camcorders A discussion on the various camcorders currently available

What do you want to do? : 

What do you want to do? If you are happy to shoot film and then distribute it directly then you have a wide choice as you do not need to edit. If you want to add titles and cut bits out you have a wide choice If you want to do some serious editing to make good movies then go for Mini DV

Types of Camcorder : 

Types of Camcorder Mini DV tape Disc (mini DVD) Hard Drive SD Card High Definition Models

Mini DV Tape Models : 

Mini DV Tape Models Until recently the most common type Tape can store 90 minutes of movie Download to any video editing programme but in real time (I.e. 1 hour tape takes 1 hour download) Stores as an .avi file Editing is easy and can be very precise Output movie to .avi, .mpeg2, .mpeg4 Output back to camera tape

DVD disc camcorders : 

DVD disc camcorders Re-writable dvd disc Captures as .mpeg2 Disc can store over 4gig Editing starts as .mpeg2 from disc Output to .mpeg2 and .mpeg4 Download to editing programme is not possible as they are .vob files and need to be converted to .mpeg2 for editing.

Hard Drive Camcorders : 

Hard Drive Camcorders Video stored on camcorder hard drive On camera storage is massive 30gig = 20 hours Format is .mpeg2 Download to computer is very quick as it is a file transfer. Input to video editing programme as .mpeg2 Output to .mpeg2/.mpeg4 Editing is from .mpeg2

SD Card Camcorders : 

SD Card Camcorders Similar to Hard Drive camcorders Video stored on SD card Limited by size of SD card Download to PC then input to editing prog. Stored as .mpeg2 Editing from .mpeg2 Output to .mpeg2/.mpeg4

High Definition Camcorders : 

High Definition Camcorders The latest thing with superb visual presentation when connected to right equipment (HiDef DVD player and or TV) Captures to integral hard drive Extremely difficult to edit Uses File formats of achdv ? Demands very high spec PC

Slide 9: 

While DV or DVC Pro are very easy for the computer to edit, HDV in its native form is extremely difficult for any computer to handle. Even a simple cut in a native HDV editing system will cause some kind of change to the video.This means that new video has to be generated which taxes your computer's CPU. More complicated things such as colour correction, titles, and resizing video frames will cause all of the affected video to be re-generated. Therefore, in many situations, native HDV editing offers little or no advantage because so much new video needs to be created To avoid these problems, the best thing to do is convert HDV into an I-Frame based video codec. There are several good choices for this, such as DVC Pro HD, the Apple Intermediate Codec, and Uncompressed 8 bit and 10 bit. Once the video is converted to one of these formats, editing becomes a lot easier. The computer doesn't have to work so hard decompressing the HDV video.

Slide 10: 

Uncompressed HD requires as much as 500 gigabytes per hour. However, the cost of the extra hard drive space may be trivial compared to the amount of time and money you save in editing and post production. HiDef editing is slower than std editing and needs a high spec PC (min 2.4 ghertz processor, high spec video card and massive hard drive). SD disc space needed is 13 gigabytes per hour of movie whereas HD needs 38-50 per hour

File Formats : 

File Formats Basically the preferred option for "editors" is .avi created from a dv mini tape as there is no compression and editing is on "actual" frames (25 frames per second). .mpeg is compressed by an algorithm, "throwing away" what it thinks will not make a difference to the naked eye so that only 1 in 15-18 frames is an "complete picture".Often in video editing we need to work at a frame specific level and if only 1 in 18 frames ia a picture then mpeg2 is not ideal.Editing from mpeg whilst it can be done, will not be able to achieve the "finer aspects" of editing as already mentioned there are only 1 in 18 frames as a whole picture.