Camcorder - HD/DV/DVD options

Z

zag

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I'm looking into getting myself a camcorder for an upcoming trip and have discovered that I have been left behind in the technology stakes and need a bit of a catch-up lesson.

From looking briefly at the options on offer I see three types of on-camera storage - DVD, DV tape and HD. I immediately see the advantage of the random(ish) access nature of DVD & HD and the normal constraints of waiting to rewind and fast forward DV tape. This pretty much rules out DV. Is there anything significant I'm missing with this - is DV the previous generation and on the way out, or is there some advantage to having it ?

Also, DVD has the advantage that you can just take the disk out write the details on it and store away for future use, whereas with HD you would presumably need to transfer the content to computer for editing, storing, etc . . . which would presumably be done on DVD anyway. Is there some other advantage of HD that I'm missing ?

Thanks,

z
 
I would think that the advantage of HD is it is more likely to provide longer term future proofing. Just look how quickly VCR's have been removed from the market - the industry is now going digital for all storage types.

In addition It is more flexible and provides much greater storage - also means the camcorder can be smaller I guess. I havent looked into it yet, just my initial thoughts

I am going to be buying on in the next week or 2 and I will definately be paying the extra to go HD over DVD..... as for DV tape....see VHS

Paddy
 
I bought a JVC HDD...excellent. It comes with a pile of software so when I upload my movies to the PC I can edit away to my heart's content. This is not so readily done with DVD or DV.

The HDD is also be lighter I believe.
 
I agree with going for a HD camera. I bought a Sony HD camera in Toronto earlier this year. I had a DV(tapes) camera for the last 8 years. HD is the way to go. If you really wanted to splash out a bit you could look at getting a high density HD camera
 
I got a mini-DVD camcorder about 2 years ago, just before the HD options came on on the market.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't really like the idea of having a pile of disks. It seems more logical to keep all media in one location (though I'll need a much bigger hard drive to accomodate this).

Lots of editing facilities sounds great in theory, but does anyone really get time to do lots of editing to the family video clips?
 
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