Summer's approaching: It's time to think about leaving the house and doing fun things, like taking the family to the beach or for a walk in the woods. And what better way to record your adventures than with a camcorder?
Go into any decent electronics retailer, and you'll see a broad range of options, from camcorders that fit in your pocket to larger models that sit on your shoulder. How do you choose?
In this column, I'll outline the choices available for the media the camcorder records to, and in my next column I'll look at the different styles of camcorders.
There's no shortage of choices for camcorder media, from recordable DVDs to the same types of memory cards that you use in your digital camera. Here are the pros and the cons of each format.
Camcorders that record straight onto recordable DVDs (such as the $700 Sony DCR-DVD301 or the $625 Hitachi DZ-MV580A) are proving to be popular. It's easy to understand why: You can shoot your video, then pop it straight into a standard set-top DVD player. Except that it's not quite that simple: You have to finalize the disc in the camcorder before you can play it back on a DVD player, a process that takes from 30 seconds to 10 minutes. You can, however, play back the video immediately in the camcorder: You don't have to rewind like you do with camcorders that use videotape.
It's difficult to edit the footage you've recorded, as only a few video editing programs are able to read the compressed video files from the DVD. The 8-centimeter recordable DVDs that the camcorders use are pretty cheap; you'll usually pay about $10 for a pack of three. You probably won't find them in your local drug store, though. You'll either have to order them online or go to a large electronics or computer store.
Camcorders that record to the business-card-sized MiniDV tape cassettes (such as the $1400 Panasonic PV-GS400 or the $350 JVC GR-D270) are among the most popular, as the format supports high-quality sound and video, and the cassettes are compact, cheap, and easily available.
A huge range of camcorders use this format, from basic point-and-shoot models to professional video cameras that people have used to shoot films. MiniDV is supported by all video editing and DVD authoring programs, so copying video from a MiniDV tape to a PC and then onto a DVD is simple; all you need is a FireWire port. These ports are built into most PCs, and can be added for around $30. And pretty much all rewritable DVD drives come with software that can import MiniDV video and write it to disc.
However, quickly watching the video you've recorded can be a pain: You have to rewind the tape, find the footage, then watch it and fast-forward the tape to a blank point before you can start recording again. If you don't do all this properly, you risk accidentally recording over your video.
MicroMV, a proprietary format developed by Sony, uses tapes that are about the size of a standard matchbook, or about 70 percent smaller than MiniDV cassettes. This makes for smaller camcorders: Models such as the $1100 Sony DCR-IP1 are minute, weighing only 9 ounces and measuring less then 1.5 inches thick.
But the format seems to be dying: Sony lists only one model on its site, and it even suggests that people upgrade to a MiniDV camcorder instead. Also, at around $13 each, MicroMV tapes are rather expensive--and they're hard to come by.
The video files are stored on the tapes in such a way that you can't import the files into most video editing or DVD authoring programs. Sony includes a basic video editing program called Movieshaker, but of the third-party video editing programs out there, only Pinnacle Studio is able to work with the files directly. And because MiniDV camcorders are getting smaller, the MicroMV form factor is less of a selling point: The MiniDV Sony DCR-PC55, for example, is only slightly bigger than the DCR-IP1, and it has a bigger LCD.
Camcorders that record to the same types of media that digital cameras use (e.g., CompactFlash, Secure Digital cards, Microdrives) are the hot new thing. Although many digital camcorders that primarily record to MiniDV cassettes have been able to record videos to memory cards for some time, these new devices dispense with the tape completely. Models such as the $150 Creative DiVi Cam 316 and the recently announced $1400 JVC GZ-MC500 record compressed video to a memory card, and transferring the video to a PC is as easy as popping the card into the card reader slot.
However, the video quality often leaves something to be desired. The resolution is often lower than the 720 by 480 pixels that tape-based camcorders offer, and the heavy compression that the memory card camcorders use can take a toll in terms of quality. But there's no doubt that these camcorders are convenient, and many of them combine other features--like a multi-megapixel still camera or MP3 player--with the video recording ability.
One thing to watch out for is that some of these camcorders, particularly the cheaper ones, don't come with memory cards. So don't forget to factor in the cost of a memory card if you are thinking of buying one of these video cameras.
There are still plenty of analog camcorders available, but I don't recommend buying them. People buy them because they are cheap: You can pick one up for $230. But the image quality is inferior to that of digital camcorders, and you can't copy the video to DVD using your PC without buying an extra converter--thereby erasing your original savings.
Digital camcorders are only slightly more expensive than analog tape-based models these days. So don't bother with an analog camcorder unless you're really short of cash. And if you're that short of cash, what are you doing buying a camcorder anyway? Pay the rent instead.
So that's the lowdown on the different media that camcorders use. In my next column I'll look at the different styles of camcorders. In the meantime, your homework is to go to a retailer that offers a selection of camcorders, and try out the different types--there will be a test.
Richard Baguley, special to PC World
