Posted by admin | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 20-05-2009
Tags: hardware, health, marketing, news, online, photo, professional video camera hard drive, stock, tips, web2.0
A look at what is currently available on eBay
Memory card / Hard drive video cameras VS Mini DV tape cameras?
Which is better when dealing with professional level video.
I've used both types of cameras, I am looking into buying a professional level video camera but I am seeing a lot of the higher end video cameras still use Mini DV tapes.
I like the convenience of Memory card cameras when uploading, but is the quality better on tapes vs memory cards?
Are you really dealing with professional level video? Just making sure, because the answer to that has a HUGE influence on which you choose.
Consumer cameras:
MiniDV tape is the way to go for quality. You risk tape dropouts and you have longer capture times, but tape is cheap, and the formats are higher quality. Having an instant archive, and getting higher quality, that's worth it to me even if it means longer capture times. Standard definition on DV runs away as the only consumer format in which each frame is compressed within itself, without relying on information from other frames. In HD, the HDV format does use interframe compression, which is a drawback, but then again, so do all the other consumer HD formats.
Pro cameras:
Cameras that record to solid-state memory definitely seem to be the wave of the future here. Panasonic uses its DVCProHD format on P2 cards, and Sony uses its XDCam EX format on SxS cards (or SDHC cards! look it up!). These formats DO have their advantages over HDV, and therefore, in the professional realm, cameras based on solid-state memory are what I'd be looking at if I was looking at pro cameras.
That said, some "borderline" pro cameras use AVCHD video recorded on SD cards. I would probably avoid those. As you step up, you start to see the "AVC-Intra" format, THAT's a good format. So, for solid-state memory, I'd be happy with DVCProHD, XDCam, and AVC-Intra. There are even better formats higher up the price chain, but if you're looking to jump up from consumer into the pro formats, these are a good start, and really will do a lot for you.