Q. Are there huge differences in the video quality you can get from a HD consumer camcorder and a little "professional" cameras...the type videographers and local news stations use on location. What are the other main differences in capability?
A. Consumer camcorders have small lenses and small imaging chip(s). This combination results in their not doing too well in low-light situations. Prosumer and pro-grade camcorders have much larger lenses and larger imaging chips.
Consumer camcorders' manual controls are generally not easily accessible. Prosumer and pro-grade camcorders have easily accessible manual zoom, manual focus, manual iris/exposure, manual shutter and manual audio controls... and neutral density filters and video gain control.
Many consumer camcorders generally do not have any mic jack or other audio-in capability other than the built-in mics. A few have a 1/8" (3.5mm) stereo mic jack (but generally no manual audio control). Prosumer models generally have a 1/8" (3.5mm) stereo mic jack with manual audio control. Pro-grade camcorders have built-in XLR audio connectors.
Consumer camcorders are generally built to be used hand-held, even though no one should ever do that. Prosumer models are larger - and while designed to be hand held, rarely are; the large ENG (Electronic News Gathering) pro models are nearly always shoulder mountable. The advantage of the shoulder mount translates into a much steadier shot - though a tripod or camera crane or other steadying device would be steadier than shoulder mount.
Other features like frame rate, interlaced vs progressive frame capture, add-on lens selection and quality, LANC (a wired remote) jack availability, matte box availability, filter selection, will also come into play.
You will also find that the vast majority of the pro camcorders use miniDV tape or save to an external hard drive that stores in DV or HDV format (same as miniDV tape). Panasonic has a few new internal hard drive or flash memory pro-grade camcorders. Red has a family of them. Sony, Canon and JVC pro lines continue to be on the DV/HDV page.
In good daylight, tripod mounted, no movement of the subject or the camera, with normal audio levels, it would be a challenge to differentiate 1080i/p 30fps video. Deviate from this, and the differences get very obvious, very quickly. Video is captured under lots of different lighting conditions, there may not be time to set up a tripod, and audio levels can be from 0 to REALLY LOUD in an instant... and the reason we capture video is for the motion...
Under many conditions, the ENG camcorder audio is not even used even though it is captured - an external field recorder (Edirol, Zoom, Marantz, M-Audio, Fostex) is used to capture the audio you end up hearing on TV and a separate audio person is employed just to be sure the audio is correctly captured.
So yes, there are huge differences - which is why a low-end consumer camcorder costs less than $300 and a decent pro camcorder can be as low as $3,000 or as high as $60,000...
But a skilled person with a low-end camcorder will always capture much better video than a non-skilled person with the most expensive camcorder...
Consumer camcorders' manual controls are generally not easily accessible. Prosumer and pro-grade camcorders have easily accessible manual zoom, manual focus, manual iris/exposure, manual shutter and manual audio controls... and neutral density filters and video gain control.
Many consumer camcorders generally do not have any mic jack or other audio-in capability other than the built-in mics. A few have a 1/8" (3.5mm) stereo mic jack (but generally no manual audio control). Prosumer models generally have a 1/8" (3.5mm) stereo mic jack with manual audio control. Pro-grade camcorders have built-in XLR audio connectors.
Consumer camcorders are generally built to be used hand-held, even though no one should ever do that. Prosumer models are larger - and while designed to be hand held, rarely are; the large ENG (Electronic News Gathering) pro models are nearly always shoulder mountable. The advantage of the shoulder mount translates into a much steadier shot - though a tripod or camera crane or other steadying device would be steadier than shoulder mount.
Other features like frame rate, interlaced vs progressive frame capture, add-on lens selection and quality, LANC (a wired remote) jack availability, matte box availability, filter selection, will also come into play.
You will also find that the vast majority of the pro camcorders use miniDV tape or save to an external hard drive that stores in DV or HDV format (same as miniDV tape). Panasonic has a few new internal hard drive or flash memory pro-grade camcorders. Red has a family of them. Sony, Canon and JVC pro lines continue to be on the DV/HDV page.
In good daylight, tripod mounted, no movement of the subject or the camera, with normal audio levels, it would be a challenge to differentiate 1080i/p 30fps video. Deviate from this, and the differences get very obvious, very quickly. Video is captured under lots of different lighting conditions, there may not be time to set up a tripod, and audio levels can be from 0 to REALLY LOUD in an instant... and the reason we capture video is for the motion...
Under many conditions, the ENG camcorder audio is not even used even though it is captured - an external field recorder (Edirol, Zoom, Marantz, M-Audio, Fostex) is used to capture the audio you end up hearing on TV and a separate audio person is employed just to be sure the audio is correctly captured.
So yes, there are huge differences - which is why a low-end consumer camcorder costs less than $300 and a decent pro camcorder can be as low as $3,000 or as high as $60,000...
But a skilled person with a low-end camcorder will always capture much better video than a non-skilled person with the most expensive camcorder...
What type of camcorder should I use for posting videos on Youtube and to put on to DVDs?
Q. I need a camcorder I'm just not sure wheter to get MiniDV, MiniDVD, etc. Help!
A. MiniDV has been around longer and is cheaper than a MiniDVD camcorder. For all intents and purposes, the quality is the same as MiniDVD (though MiniDV is capable of higher quality than miniDVD can achieve). MiniDVD burns directly onto the discs which you can put into your computer and edit or upload to the internet. With MiniDV, you need an IEEE1394 firewire cable to connect your camcorder to an appropriate IEEE port. Your will have to buy the cable, and maybe an adapter as well if your computer doesn't have the port. You can get both for cheap though - under $30 at amazon.
MiniDVDs are only able to record 30 minutes onto a disc, where as MiniDVs are able to record 60 minutes at high quality onto a tape. Go to a store and try some out and see how they feel in your hands and which you think would be more convenient for you. You can't really go wrong with either one for youtube purposes, though I feel that MiniDV has more upside as a purchase.
MiniDVDs are only able to record 30 minutes onto a disc, where as MiniDVs are able to record 60 minutes at high quality onto a tape. Go to a store and try some out and see how they feel in your hands and which you think would be more convenient for you. You can't really go wrong with either one for youtube purposes, though I feel that MiniDV has more upside as a purchase.
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