The Right Format For the Right HD Camcorders

Picking the right HD hard drive camcorder can makesoftware if you want to edit. Of the two options,
your brain hurt, they just so many. So finding yourDV will be the faster method to transfer footage.
way through the many formats is your first step.DVD/BD
They are four different formats on the market andEnjoy the convenience before they disappear from
they are MiniDV tapes, hard disc drive, DVD/BD andshelves forever...
Flash memory cards.For:
MiniDV TapesStraight Forward and easy to use
Mini DV camcorders:Decent quality
FOR:Instant playback in your DVD/BD
High quality imagesConvenient
Easy to useAGAINST:
Tapes and camcorders are cheaperDVD/BD disc limited capacity
AGAINST:Spare media could get expensive
Lengthy Transfer ProcessFormat not popular for camcorders
Not as convenient of flexible to transfer footageDVD camcorders are becoming less renowned and
No in - camcorder editingwill soon be dropped by many manufactures. They
Once the industry standard, what does this formatare inexpensive and offer a very handy and easy
offer consmers today?format to get to grips with. However, the chief plus
MiniDV tapes are deemed the industry standardpoint is that you can take your recently recorded
format for consumers; they're easy to use, small, afootage and download in into a DVD player or PC for
familiar format and give high quality results. However,instant playback without needing any extra cables or
times change and there are more flexible andsome sort of transferring procedure. You can also
convenient formats for consumers to opt for instead.use your DVD enabled PC to edit footage and you
The MiniDV is probably the least and mosthave easy access to the footage on DVD because
time-consuming option to transfer footage from foryou don't have to keep going forwards and
the beginner, as you have to play the whole tape tobackwards to find a particular scene, as is the case
transfer it.with MiniDVs.
There are Five ways to transfer footage fromThe downside is that the 8cm DVDs used in HD
MiniDV: composite A/V leads - the red, white (sound)camcorders only hold around 15 - 20 minutes of
and yellow (video) plugs - and An S-video cable,footage per disc and at around £2 per disc, it
though both of these downgrade the footage fromcan get expensive. Plus, you've always got to carry
HD to standard definition, so they tend to be usedspares around with you and you have to decide
purely for viewing on an SD. ADV cable (or FireWire),which type of DVD to buy: write once DVDs (DVD
and USB 2.0 Both maintain the HD quality. The last-R) for extra storage capacity.
way is using an HDMI cable - though this is just forThe quality of images is very high, but not quite as
viewing.high as that from MiniDV camcorders. But for the
Composite Av and S-video can go into Your DVDaverage buyer, the convenience and simplicity of
recorder and PCs. FireWire is for connecting to a PC.DVD/BD far outweighs the minor difference in quality.
If you are saving the footage to your computer, youFlash Memory Cards
will need bags of room for HD footage, and plenty ofRemovable media cards have enabled camcorders to
Ram memory too. You will also need dedicatedget ever smaller.
software if you want to edit footage in any way.FOR:
Hard Disc DriveStraightforward and easy to use
What are the benefits of recording onto a hard driveSmaller and lighter camcorders
over removable media?Future proof
FOR:Convenient
Large storage capacity (up to 240GB)AGAINST:
Familiar recording formatLimited memory card capacity
CompactMore expensive
AGAINST:Removable media cards (SD, SDHC, and Memory
More expensive than MiniDV and DVD, without theStick) are solid state (they have no moving parts),
quality of MiniDVretain data without the need for power, are vey
Hard drives can failsmall yet have high capacities (up to 64GB at the
Built in HDD hard disk drive (HDD) are now widelymoment, but with 1 &2TB on the way) and fast
used in camcorders. They work in the same way astransfer speeds. Card capacities are ever growing to
your PC's hard drive in that they store all of themeet the demand of ever bigger file storage sizes,
footage internally, so there is no need for removableso it possibly won't be long before they could
memory storage, such as cards or tapes.overtake hard disc drives as the convenient form for
The benefits of HDD hard disk drive camcorders re:video storage especially as you can transfer footage
long recording times, compact dimensions and thatto your PC just by inserting the card.
you can easily access your footage at random placeEditing in Camcorder is easy too, as the footage can
in the recording timeline, which makes for convenientbe viewed at no point in the timeline (called random
editing in -camcorder.access). Also, as memory cards are physically small,
A possible downside is the argument made by somethe camcorders can be smaller and lighter too a real
that hard drives can be fragile (for example, if thebenefit if you want to travel lights, as well as making
camera is accidentally dropped) and they willit easier to handhold without introducing camera
eventually wear out. Of course, as you're recordingshakes. Furthermore, battery usage/power demand is
onto an internal medium, you will also need tofar less and some Panasonic TVs, Sony's Playstation
transfer it off the camcorder onto a DVD or your PC3 and some DVD players also have memory card
at some future point. When you are transferring theslots so that you can insert your card and watch
footage, your footage appears as single files thatfootage directly from it.
you can drag and drop, much like many PCOf course, thee are a few downsides, such as the
operations, making it a familiar format for consumers.potential to lose memory cards (small isn't always
Transferring your footage involves connecting yourbetter!) and the current capacity limits of memory
camcorder using DV (firewire) or USB 2.0 cables, andcards (though they can store more than 8cm DVDs).