Q. My wife and I are looking to buy a DVD camcorder at a reasonable cost (under $400) before our baby boy arrives in April. I have a few questions.....
What is mini dv and how is it different to DVD?
What brand and model offer the best quality at the best price?
What about internal memory, transferring to a PC, audio quality, etc...
This will be used mainly for home movies, but I would also use it at my bands performances as well as concerts and possibly sporting events.
What is mini dv and how is it different to DVD?
What brand and model offer the best quality at the best price?
What about internal memory, transferring to a PC, audio quality, etc...
This will be used mainly for home movies, but I would also use it at my bands performances as well as concerts and possibly sporting events.
A. DO NOT BUY A DVD BASED CAMCORDER.
Highest compression of the available storage formats results in lost data = poor video quality... especially if you have any intention of ever editing. The DVD based camcorders will compress into a VOB file typically not useful directly by most video editors. That typically means ripping the DVD or using the analog AV cables that come with the camcorder and transferring low-quality analog video through a analog/digital bridge.
DO NOT BUY A DVD BASED CAMCORDER.
The BEST quality video comes from camcorders that use miniDV tape (which record into DV format for standard definition video). There is very little compression applied and if your computer has a firewire port, DV can be editied by pretty much any video editing application. You will use the DV port of the camcorder connected to the firewire port of your computer - using a firewire cable (firewire, i.Link, IEEE1394 are all the same thing).
DO NOT BUY A DVD BASED CAMCORDER.
Higher video quality than DVD based and not quite miniDV tape based camcorder video quality are the hard drive and certain higher-end flash based camcorder - they typically compress a lot into a MPEG file format. Most (not all) video editors can deal with this with not additional codecs - but the translation apps are available for all editing apps to deal with them.
DO NOT BUY A DVD BASED CAMCORDER.
When you use MiniDV tape, it is your "archive". Fill a 60 minute tape, pop out the tape, put in a new one and start rolling. I can use around 5 seconds from the time I press stop, replace a tape and am recording again.
When you use a hard drive based or flash memory based camcorder, what happens when you run out of memory? You need to transfer video to a computer, delete the files from the camcorder and start shooting again. Yes, they hold menay hours of video - you have to be sure to clean it out each time - just like you need to remember to carry blank tapes.
DO NOT BUY A DVD BASED CAMCORDER.
I shoot live music videos... If your music is loud, you do not have much choice. Most low-end and mid-range camcorders do not have any manual audio control and have to rely on an auto audio leveling circuit. For the most part, this auto-audio gain mechanism cannot deal with loud music - this can be loud from a marching band or loud from amplified instruments. The resulting audio will be muddy and not usable. You can either find a Sony camcorder (DCR-HC28, DCR-HC96) that has a menu selection for normal or low gain for the audio or you can use an external device to control the gain (like a BeachTek XLR adapter - but you would be using a camcorder with a mic-in jack and XLR mics) or you can find a camcorder with manual audio control - there are none in your stated price range. The least expensive ones I know of are the Canon HV20 or Sony HDR-HC7.
DO NOT BUY A DVD BASED CAMCORDER.
Both the Sony DCR-HC28 and DCR-HC96 do not have a proper mic-in jack - they do have a Sony proprietary "active interface" shoe. Normally, that would mean you are locked into using ONLY Sony proprietary mics that work with the proprietary shoe... but, if you get http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/479976-REG/Sony_VMCK100_VMC_K100_Microphone_Adapter.html then you can use any mic or XLR adapter with a 1/8" jack. B&H is the only place these seem to exist - you can't even get them directly from Sony!
DO NOT BUY A DVD BASED CAMCORDER.
Just so you know, my current favorite equipment to use for live band recording is my Sony HDR-HC1, Audio-Technica AT-825 stereo mic and BeachTeck DXA-6 XLR adapter... If I am lucky and have an audio engineer who knows what they are doing and can send me a good discreet board mix, I prefer using that connected to my camera or a field recorder (M-Audio or Marantz or Fostex) or a DigiDesign ProTools set up and replace the camera's audio with the board mix...
Did I mention, DO NOT BUY A DVD BASED CAMCORDER.
Highest compression of the available storage formats results in lost data = poor video quality... especially if you have any intention of ever editing. The DVD based camcorders will compress into a VOB file typically not useful directly by most video editors. That typically means ripping the DVD or using the analog AV cables that come with the camcorder and transferring low-quality analog video through a analog/digital bridge.
DO NOT BUY A DVD BASED CAMCORDER.
The BEST quality video comes from camcorders that use miniDV tape (which record into DV format for standard definition video). There is very little compression applied and if your computer has a firewire port, DV can be editied by pretty much any video editing application. You will use the DV port of the camcorder connected to the firewire port of your computer - using a firewire cable (firewire, i.Link, IEEE1394 are all the same thing).
DO NOT BUY A DVD BASED CAMCORDER.
Higher video quality than DVD based and not quite miniDV tape based camcorder video quality are the hard drive and certain higher-end flash based camcorder - they typically compress a lot into a MPEG file format. Most (not all) video editors can deal with this with not additional codecs - but the translation apps are available for all editing apps to deal with them.
DO NOT BUY A DVD BASED CAMCORDER.
When you use MiniDV tape, it is your "archive". Fill a 60 minute tape, pop out the tape, put in a new one and start rolling. I can use around 5 seconds from the time I press stop, replace a tape and am recording again.
When you use a hard drive based or flash memory based camcorder, what happens when you run out of memory? You need to transfer video to a computer, delete the files from the camcorder and start shooting again. Yes, they hold menay hours of video - you have to be sure to clean it out each time - just like you need to remember to carry blank tapes.
DO NOT BUY A DVD BASED CAMCORDER.
I shoot live music videos... If your music is loud, you do not have much choice. Most low-end and mid-range camcorders do not have any manual audio control and have to rely on an auto audio leveling circuit. For the most part, this auto-audio gain mechanism cannot deal with loud music - this can be loud from a marching band or loud from amplified instruments. The resulting audio will be muddy and not usable. You can either find a Sony camcorder (DCR-HC28, DCR-HC96) that has a menu selection for normal or low gain for the audio or you can use an external device to control the gain (like a BeachTek XLR adapter - but you would be using a camcorder with a mic-in jack and XLR mics) or you can find a camcorder with manual audio control - there are none in your stated price range. The least expensive ones I know of are the Canon HV20 or Sony HDR-HC7.
DO NOT BUY A DVD BASED CAMCORDER.
Both the Sony DCR-HC28 and DCR-HC96 do not have a proper mic-in jack - they do have a Sony proprietary "active interface" shoe. Normally, that would mean you are locked into using ONLY Sony proprietary mics that work with the proprietary shoe... but, if you get http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/479976-REG/Sony_VMCK100_VMC_K100_Microphone_Adapter.html then you can use any mic or XLR adapter with a 1/8" jack. B&H is the only place these seem to exist - you can't even get them directly from Sony!
DO NOT BUY A DVD BASED CAMCORDER.
Just so you know, my current favorite equipment to use for live band recording is my Sony HDR-HC1, Audio-Technica AT-825 stereo mic and BeachTeck DXA-6 XLR adapter... If I am lucky and have an audio engineer who knows what they are doing and can send me a good discreet board mix, I prefer using that connected to my camera or a field recorder (M-Audio or Marantz or Fostex) or a DigiDesign ProTools set up and replace the camera's audio with the board mix...
Did I mention, DO NOT BUY A DVD BASED CAMCORDER.
how do you make home movies with a camcorder?
Q. I am new to camcorders. Step-by-step instructions to make home movies using a camcorder, please.
A. My own experience is that you have to do a little bit a a time.
I assume you already have you footage in your camcorder and know how to get the video into the PC.
First, capture the footage to PC. Best if you have scene detection if you're using miniDV..Choose a video editor software.
Second, organise and sort your footage according to the scenes.Delete bad footage. If there are stills, include them. Maybe put them in the same folder. For my vacation videos, I put the different scenes in different folder, even if it's from the same vacation. I do this to avoid being overwhelmed with all the footage..
Third, gather background music. Something appropriate for the occasion.
Fourth, fire up the video editor. Just import stuff only you want to edit at the moment. If you can import in separate 'bins', like in Premiere, you can import everything in but make sure everything is in order.
Fifth , edit away. Shorten scenes that is overly long and unnecessary.
In Premiere, you can gather the footages in different Sequence, eg. sequence 1, sequence 2...etc.
Lastly, render all the different sequences out if you're planning to use a DVD-authoring software, or you can render everything straight from the video editor to DVD, choose the simple DVD layout and buttons etc...
Last word, show off your work and impress all your families and friends.
I assume you already have you footage in your camcorder and know how to get the video into the PC.
First, capture the footage to PC. Best if you have scene detection if you're using miniDV..Choose a video editor software.
Second, organise and sort your footage according to the scenes.Delete bad footage. If there are stills, include them. Maybe put them in the same folder. For my vacation videos, I put the different scenes in different folder, even if it's from the same vacation. I do this to avoid being overwhelmed with all the footage..
Third, gather background music. Something appropriate for the occasion.
Fourth, fire up the video editor. Just import stuff only you want to edit at the moment. If you can import in separate 'bins', like in Premiere, you can import everything in but make sure everything is in order.
Fifth , edit away. Shorten scenes that is overly long and unnecessary.
In Premiere, you can gather the footages in different Sequence, eg. sequence 1, sequence 2...etc.
Lastly, render all the different sequences out if you're planning to use a DVD-authoring software, or you can render everything straight from the video editor to DVD, choose the simple DVD layout and buttons etc...
Last word, show off your work and impress all your families and friends.
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