Community poll forum: Which type of camcorder video format do you prefer?

It may not give you the best resolution, but... it is high res. enough to be able to view it with detail; hi 8 camcorders also play and record on 8mm tapes, they can be converted into digital on the computer; the playback and record times are best in pack (I hate stopping and putting in a new disc, or VHS-C tape.), set it and forget it. Easy to edit on the computer. I gave back a digital 8 camcorder by Sony, because it only played digital 8 format. Pain in the neck if you wanted to play it back on more popular 8 mm or hi 8 players or camcorder. Hope this helps.

I aint got no camcorder.

I used to use a JVC VHS-C camcorder for many years. When the drive belts began to slip and dry out, it was too old to get replacement parts. I shopped around and decided on a Panasonic DV with a 100x zoom and a built in Still capture. The main reason was price, at less than $270. Other reasons were that the DV format is widespread and the tape are available everywhere when traveling. The Hard drive and DVD buring units were much more money at the time and since they were new technology, I decided to go with a platform that was well established and refined. The DV cam is fairly energy efficient, with a long life 3.5+ hours of charge life. It makes a big difference when your away from any electric outlets and extra batterys are pricy.
Good Luck.

Stay at Marriott 30 weeks a year, accumulate enough points and get one for free...............

It is still an industry leading format in small-scale film. It doesn't drop frames like dvds, it doesn't scratch like hard-drives, it requires less processing-thus better quality then flash memory, better quality then Digital/Hi8/8mm, smaller then VHS formats... and it is standard so it is easy to find cameras that use the same format.

For the little bit extra these tapes cost each, they are worth it. I will not buy a different tape, until maybe they make a new type for HD... but atm, miniDV is doing a good job with that as well.

My vote is "Microdrive, CompactFlash, and
built-in hard drive". Go with a device that has an internal hard drive.
Never replace or wear out tapes, don't waste dv's (mini or otherwise). Burn to Full size cheap DVD's what and only what you want and need.
I went with the Sony Handycam DCR-SR80. So far the only downside is no view finder. You need to use the lcd to frame your video. Some people do not mind that, it bugs me. I would rate this camera about a 7.5 out of 10. CNets review can be found at http://reviews.cnet.com/Sony_Handycam_DCR_SR80/4505-6500_7-31979959.html?tag=pdtl-list&ar=o

I would prefer a camcorder that uses flash memory, since memory is getting so inexpensive. When I use my camcorder, I always "dump" it off to a videotape, DVD, or computer. The problem today is that camcorders that use flash memory do not have full features, such as optical zoom, in particular. I would think a full featured camcorder that uses memory would result in a product that would have few moving parts (as in a tape drive or DVD drive) and be lower in cost, smaller and lighter, and have the ability to swap out memory for additional recording time, when needed.

I'm not a camcorder person, but I've been using a Nokia N93 for a while now and I'm getting a hang of the video features especially because the quality is superb for a phone. The quality is crystal clear, VGA resolution, 30 FPS, and they are recorded as MPEG4 files. This is all recorded onto a 2GB miniSD card. The files are limited to 60 minutes, but I can pause, and stuff, so its no problem. Also I can easily delete the files I don't need, quickly, and I can also transfer my video files onto my computer and edit with the included Adobe Premiere Elements (but I use Premiere Pro anyway).

So the idea is I use miniSD (which is very easy to carry if I decide I'm going to lug around a bunch of them).

1. It is uncompressed video so you lose nothing.
2. It is relatively cheap
3. It is recognized by every movie editing program out there.
4. Reusable
5. There is no other type of media out there that is better overall

For those of us that shot hours and hours of 8mm video and then moved to a Sony Digital8 camcorder to preserve our images, I have never seen a good explanation about why Sony esentially abandoned the Digital8, backward compatible, format camcorder. (I think they still make an old clunky Digital8 that isn't backward compatible, but you can tell this isn't where the company's heart is.) Was it size of the camcorders, being able to charge more $'s for a new type of tape format, new is better, following industry direction, or what?

I'm sure size wasn't the issue. If Sony did away with half the stuff on the Digital8 camcorders, most of which nobody used anyway, redesigned the body and tape loading system, and made other modifications, they could have brought the size of the Digital8 down to something approximating the current DV camcorders. The 8mm media is very durable, more so than the DVD media that they now use for a lot of their camcorders. True, 8mm tapes (and also DV tapes) are susceptible to most problems that DVD's are except that DVD's scratch. This is a serious problem, particularly for travelers or those prone to accidental dropping, etc. How many DVD's have been rendered useless by simple scratch? You can smear toothpaste on a DVD to get it to run, but the data under the scratch is lost.

I have 8mm cassettes that have survived since the 80's in a box in my garage. That's 20 years!!! They've been viewed several times, thrown in boxes, recorded and rerecorded several times, slammed around, gone through 3 moves and stored at high temperatures and low temperatures. I have yet to find a tape with degraded images!!! A couple of cassette's had problems replaying, but if the tapes don't work, you can take the cassette's apart, rewind the tape, or place the spools in another cassette and you can usually get them to work.

All the predictions for DVD life are much lower, some predictions of a decade or less. DVD's are fine if you immediately move to a harddisk and are diligent about doing backups and moving to other media. Are most family, point-and-shoot type photographers that diligent? I don't think so and I'm a prime, point-and-shoot, "honey, I'll do it next week" example.

If you want to know the demand for backward compatible Digital8 camcorders, look at their sales on eBay. Dozens of Digital8's are sold on eBay every few days at prices that are high for used DV equipment. Thousands of people have old 8mm tapes that want to transfer their images to digital media.

Sony has missed the boat on continuing to further develop backward compatible Digital8 camcorders and Hi8 media, just like they have on a number of other electronic products that they have offered thru the years. Digital media reporters and guru's have also missed the boat. These folks only want to praise the latest gimmick, without asking questions about longevity and usefulness to the average Joe Blow user. Why haven't the most powerful media folks railed against formats that are iffy as far as durability and best for the average consumer? Why aren't they herding the average consumer away from a media (DVD) that is marginal unless protected in cases and family room storage boxes; that must be kept away from kids that want to use them as frisbees; and that experts warn about degredation within a decade?

My vote is for Digital8-based camcorders simply because I haven't seen anything else that's any better. I think any tape format is better than DVD's or harddrives, simply because of the durability aspect. Tape is more like photos for the average family use; you can throw them in a box for 20 years and still view them when your kids are grown.

I never had much use for a camcorder, but being an eBay addict, I found a nice Samsung for about $120. It's a great little machine, and I like the little-bitty tapes it uses. The DVD camcorders just don't seem a good choice--I would worry about it getting dropped and it's fragile laser getting damaged. I usually buy technology 1-step behind the latest and for tiny prices.The MiniDV has great picture quality and is easy to download on my computer. Price is the best guide...most camcorders are very good now, it's pretty hard to find bad ones.

I just bought my first camcorder ever about a month ago and and settled on a Panasonic 3CCD model. I love it and I love tape. I'm old school that way.

It took me a couple of years to get off of 5 1/4" floppies to the 3 1/2" ones. I'll probably always be a tape person. When i started in radio in high school our station used tapes for its religious programming, I worked at an easy listening station when I was in my early 30's and we used tapes before migrating to CD's.

For me there is just some kind of physicality about handling the tapes, filing them, getting them and using again etc. that just appeals to my hands on nature.

Oh and yes miniDV is superior for all the reasons given above.

Tom

My reply may be of limited use to many hobbyist videographers, as I'm in a transition, I hope, from serious amateur to independent movie maker. Right now I own a Canon XLH1, which has the advantage of being able to record to HDV tape or send a true HD datastream to whatever storage device may be compatible with the standard cables for its HD/SD HDI output connector.

In general I think it depends a lot on what your final goal is. For now HD-DVD or BluRay disc writers are prohibitively expensive for most of us. My present projects are usually shot in HD, but downconverted for playback in SD on a DVD which may be prepared on either my computer editing station (if I'm trying to provide something polished) or (for casual, personal and family footage) just fed through my DVR/DVD recorder to its hard drive, edited minimally, with simple, no-frills cuts, as no other transitions are manageable from that device.

If you plan to work a lot with an NLE like Vegas or Final Cut or any of the others out there, it may be worthwhile (if your camera will allow) to record straight to some sort of portable hard drive.

Transferring raw tape to the NLE for editing is a very time-consuming operation. And though you can sometimes set up the transfer and go on to work on something else, this will often require that you work on two machines -- or plan for your other task not it involve a computer at all. Certainly, once the price of multi-terabyte storage devices drops into a more affordable range, the shift to full HD will become more tempting -- and the time tradeoff will also have become a no-brainer. I can't imagine trying to feed true uncompressed HD to on-disc files from tape -- even if it were possible.

In the next few years, at least on the "prosumer" end of the market, I can't see any other technologies besides some kind of portable HD or a HD format disc being viable (for HD, that is). As long as you're satified to shoot in SD, though, what will affect the quality of your work probably has more to do with stabilization, learning to shoot in a more "cinematic" way than it will have to do with particular formats of storage. If you're looking to improve your work, better to invest in a good tripod, one of the more affordable Steadicam devices and investing time and energy into learning good "filmmaking" techniques.

If you do go to HD or even HDV, these become even more important, as HD has a much lower tolerance for handheld shooting techniques, excessive use of zoom and the other telltale signs of "home movie" syndrome.

-- Digital8 (Why?)
-- Hi8 (Why?)
-- MicroMV (Why?)
-- Microdrive, CompactFlash, and built-in hard drive (Why?)
-- MiniDV (Why?)
-- Mini DVD-R/DVD-RAM (Why?)
-- S-VHS/S-VHS-C (Why?)
-- VHS/VHS-C (Why?)
-- 8mm (Why?)
-- Other (What is it?)
======================================================================
-- MiniDV (Why?)
................I think this type of Capture medium is a durable one..
-- Digital8 (Why?)
................I may try this one/as a Re-recording management/to access other analog devices and output-->>to my PC..where I can convert to DV-avi..so far I was thinking A-D..conversion/
-- Hi8 (Why?)
................I could probrably use this for CLOSE-Ups ONLY..and then convert to:DV-avi/
-- Other (What is it?)
.................I could not use any others/I depend on IEEE 1394/and like to use Dolby-Digital Sound on my DVDs..
I would quess your possibilites lie in the depth of your LENS shot..Wide Angle shots vs. Zoom photography..of course light issues are always present( I think 20-minutes)will change your Capture Photography/
..................I now hand wind my [mini]DV-tape....................
.......Fast Forward+Reverse seem to damge the tape at some point......
I think its Camera Age..my PanaSonic PV-DV53 is approaching 4-years of service..in extreme weather/I've made over 100-DVDs from this camera..and its still Crystal Clear--its just I need to use a TAPE HEAD Cleaner about once a month now--and they have been costing $$14.00/<<---bummer.