The right answer for you should align with how serious you are about taking digital video, and what you want to do with it. I don’t know you, but you do.
I’ve been shooting film or video my whole life. The digital revolution let me change my shooting style considerably. No longer having to budget film footage to save money or editing time, digital camcorders and non-linear editing lets me shoot as much as I can and as randomly as I want. Today I can take video of an event and enjoy it at the same time, something I couldn’t do in the past. I edit my footage but most who take video don’t. Will you?
Mini-DV camcorders work best for me, as they provide the highest quality with the easiest way to get the clips into my computer editing software. They record standard DV (think high quality DVDs but not high-def) on tape cassettes. Such camcorders are a few hundred dollars and an 8 pack of Maxell tapes at Sam’s Club is under $20. At an hour per tape, 8 hours is a lifetime of personal video for most people.
But it’s your question, not mine. Should you get a mini-DV camcorder? Probably not, if you don’t want to spend more time editing than shooting video. Let’s take a little virtual shopping trip together, not to pick the perfect camcorder but to get some food for thought.
B&H in New York City may be the largest store in the United States for cameras and camcorders. If you have their 466 page Summer 2008 catalog of Photo, Video and Pro Audio supplies, open it to page 268 and follow along in the 24 pages of camcorders and accessories. We’ll stop before the even larger section of professional video gadgets. If you’re into pro stuff, you won’t need this article.
As I don’t know you, and don’t like to guess about such an important purchase, let me start with a few questions. Do you already own a cell phone or digital camera with a feature to take video? My Kyocera TracFone doesn’t but my little 7 megapixel Canon SureShot camera does. If you already have a gadget with a video feature, ask yourself 2 more questions.
Are you using the video feature?
If not, why not?
Maybe you’re camcorder shopping because you think you need one to join the tidal wave of interest in video. You don’t, and chances are you’ll end up using the new camcorder about the same amount as you use your phone or digicam option.
If you’re still with me, let’s scan the pages. Any brand and item that aligns with your interests and fits your budget will be the right one for you. B&H is highly reputable and their prices are always good.
Pg 268 – camcorder types and recording media
Some record to a hard drive in the camcorder… when the drive gets full you need to connect it to a computer and transfer the video files.
Others record on little DVDs, tapes or the same types of flash media cards digital cameras use. When the blank media is filled, you replace it with an empty one. All tapes and flash cards can be reused but only the RW types of DVDs are reusable.
Pg 269 - ‘Point of View’ specialized camcorders. If you’re into highly thrilling action and want to take video from your perspective, not from the spectator’s vantage point, these are the models for you. Motorcycling, hang-gliding, skate-boarding, skiing… you’re hands are busy doing things other than starting and stopping a camcorder.
Pgs 270-271 – 6 well known brands of DVD camcorders. There’s a page of standard DVD quality models and one of high-def. They’re all great if you simply want to go from camcorder to big-screen TV viewing using a stand-alone DVD player. But editing the footage is often difficult, and I’ve yet to meet anyone who, after watching the clips, doesn’t want to edit the footage at least a little. Camcorder salesmen don’t tell you about the hurdles you’ll need to get over to edit DVD material. If you’ve already been doing some video editing, you probably won’t consider getting such a camcorder.
Pgs 272-273 – Here we see a number of additional brands along with the familiar Sony and Canon. There’s the newer ultra-simple Flip camcorders, Sanyo underwater models good for 5 feet under, some high-def models, and more. Prices range from a modest $134.95 to over $1,000. What’s common to all is recording on the same kinds of flash memory that digital cameras use… no moving parts make them less prone to shock type damage.
Memory cards typically mean small files made by ultra-high compression, file types often difficult to edit. One exception is the Flip camcorder that has quickly taken a large share of the market. It has an option to send wmv (Windows Media Video) files to the computer, easy to edit with Windows Movie Maker.
Pgs 274-275 - Hard drive camcorders, both standard sized and high definition, with some hybrids that do either. Be careful… with newer more specialized high def file types, you can find yourself with great video scenes that don’t work in your editing software. Fully think through your computer editing and the equipment you’ll be viewing your movies on. Watching high-def footage on YouTube may highly disappoint you.
One myth of high-def models is the files sizes. With the higher compression of newer file types, the high-def files I’ve seen are smaller than regular DV-AVI.
Pgs 276 - Mini-DV camcorders. The prices of mini-DV models, from $229.95 to $369.95, are so much lower than the $1,100 I spent on my first Sony mini-DV camcorder just a few years ago, you can’t go wrong with any of the 4 well known brands here. Connect via firewire/iLink cable and file conversion isn’t needed. If you expect to spend endless hours tweaking your masterpieces, your investment in dollars per hour will be minimal. In addition to the camcorder, plan on about $30 for the ‘firewire/iLink’ cable not included, and $20 for an 8-pack of tapes. The included USB cable doesn’t transfer full quality video from the camcorder, so be sure your computer has a firewire connection, or plan to add one.
Pg 277 – Two brands of HDV high-def camcorders that record on the same tapes as the mini-DV models. The video is great quality but there are editing challenges far beyond those for standard DV video.
Pgs 278-279 - Assorted PAL camcorders for those in England, Europe and other countries where TVs use that system. The United States and Japan use NTSC. Camcorders are one or the other, none with a switch to toggle between PAL and NTSC. Don’t get a PAL model without knowing for sure what your country standard is.
The section ends with:
6 pages of camcorder accessories - Spare batteries, wide angle and zoom lenses, filters, power adapters, cases, external mics, etc. You can get along fine without any such extras.
4 pages of underwater video gear and 2 pages for night vision, specialized like the point of view models we saw at the beginning of the section, and much more expensive.
If you’ve zeroed into an area and picked something, get it and enjoy your videos. See you at the file conversion hurdles or in the editing room. It'll be a fun journey.