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Digital camcorders have all but taken over from analogue models, making filming easier than ever. Gone are the days of needing to prop a huge box against your shoulder to take home movies.
And the advantages of digital technology arent just confined to size; you get sharper pictures, more features and theyre becoming cheaper.
Recording formats
Mini DV
Being roughly the size of a hotel soap bar, MiniDV cassettes are easy
to store and use, . They offer digital recording with a compact design,
and also give you more recording time for your money. Mini DV camcorders
are also lightweight (600g - 700g). But the real advantage is in the
versatility of editing footage. They use a DV encoding system which
processes each movie frame individually, allowing you to extract any
single frame you wish. The result is easier and more precise editing.
Benefits
Recording time at highest-quality setting: about 60 minutes (long
play, 90 minutes)
Outstanding picture and sound quality
Compact and lightweight tapes and camcorders
Ideal for connecting to a PC for editing
Can be connected to a TV or VCR using analogue connections
Memory cards (extendable) for digital still pictures
Some have over 1 megapixel CCDs for higher quality still pictures
DVD
At 8cm in diameter, blank DVDs are smaller than regular DVDs, but you
can play most types in a DVD player or PC. DVDs have three main recording
formats: DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM. You cant play DVD-RAM discs in
most DVD players, but with DVD-RAM and DVD-RW discs, you can do some
editing of your film on the camcorder itself (rather than having to
transfer to your PC and use editing software).
Whilst you can only record on DVD-R discs once, most DVD camcorders
can usually use more than one format. A disc cannot hold as much information
as a cassette tape, which is why DVD uses a much heavier compression
scheme than DV. This affects the quality of the still image.
Benefits
Recording time at highest-quality setting: about 20 minutes (double-sided,
40 minutes)
Record directly to 8cm DVDs with minimal fuss
Easy playback
DV quality recordings
Records onto both DVD-R and DVD-RW 8cm DVDs
Instantly access thumbnail scenes and recorded video clips on a DVD
player just like chapters on a
DVD
Edit or copy discs using Pixel ImageMixer software on a PC (but not
Mac)
View recordings on compatible DVD devices such as DVD players, computers
with DVD drives and PlayStation 2 consoles (however, image may freeze
between scenes depending on DVD player quality)
Hard drive
Fusing digital camera and digital camcorder technology, the latest style
of camcorder records straight onto a hard disc. And without the need
for tape or DVD, hard drive camcorders tend to be smaller and lighter.
They either have an internal permanent hard disc drive or a small, removable
hard disc (Microdrive). Internal hard discs are usually up to 30GB in
size.
Benefits
Recording time at highest-quality setting: about 7 hours
DVD-quality MPEG-4 digital movies
Higher quality stills (VGA image resolution)
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