Bought a mini-DV camcorder lately?

[HarambeGuy]

If so, what did you get and how do you like it? Especially if you've had it to the World...

Looking for a new camcorder and still sold on mini-DV as far as a format.

 

[RainbowsMist]

Hi there....

We bought the Canon ZR700 about 2 months ago for our recent trip to WDW. DH mostly uses it and he loves it! The quality is good, it's very user friendly and it's easy to hold.

We also have used it for our DD's sporting events (gymnastics and equestrian) and the picture quality is great!

Good luck!

 

[fuse04]

Bought a Panasonic GS300, love it. Choose this based on reviews and looking for better colour reproduction and the 3 CCD shouldbe great for that.

thanks
Fuse04

 

[Amy]

Hi there....

We bought the Canon ZR700 about 2 months ago for our recent trip to WDW. DH mostly uses it and he loves it! The quality is good, it's very user friendly and it's easy to hold.

Good luck!

We're in the market for a new camcorder, too. Today's Best Buy ad has the Canon ZR800 (I guess a bit newer model than yours) Mini-DV for $279.99 (before $25 instant savings). In the description, it also says that it features an SD card slot. What's this for? Can you shoot and store video on both a Mini-DV AND and SD card?

 

[photo_chick]

We have an older Canon ZR50 and the SD card is where it saves the digital stills you take.

I cannot believe the prices of the mini-dv camcorders now! When we got ours in 2004 it was $800! And they are getting so small too!

 

[Amy]

Can I ask a stupid question? If you have a mini-DV camcorder, can you just plop the mini-DV's in your regular DVD player to watch your videos, or do you have to download the video to your computer and then burn them to a full-size DVD?

And I might as well turn this into my "Dumb Questions" post: we have a Dell desktop with a CD burner that's about 2-3 years old. No problem burning music CD's or picture CD's. However, I was making slide shows using both PhotoStory3 and PSE4; I burned them to CD in the format to watch them on a computer and they worked fine. Then I saved them in DVD format and tried burning to a CD; it worked ok, but wouldn't play on our DVD player. Then I bought some recordable DVD's and tried burning the slide show to the DVD in my computer, but it kept rejecting the DVD. Is this because we have just a CD burner on our computer? Do I need to get a DVD burner to make DVD's that we can play on our DVD player to watch on tv?

Sorry to ask dumb questions, but I just can't figure out all this stuff!

 

[MarkBarbieri]

If so, what did you get and how do you like it?

I got the Canon XH-A1. So far I like it a lot, but it is rather overwhelming. I'm learning new terms like knees and zebras. I'm learning what shutter speeds are best for what situations. I'm learning when to use 24F vs 60i for the frame rate. I'm learning which codecs to use when editing and rendering. It's a lot to learn, but it's interesting.

I bought it for the following reasons:

1) Now that I'm used to high definition and now that we've moved to 50" and larger TVs, watching SD home video is far less appealing. I don't want to shoot SD video anymore.

2) The XH-A1 has gotten great reviews. It allows (encourages) lots of control by the shooter. Having really enjoyed learning about photography, I thought learning videography would be interesting.

I would not recommend the camcorder to anyone that doesn't intend to take up videography as a serious hobby. If you use it as a point-and-shoot, I don't think that the difference in quality between it and an HV20 would justify the extra bulk, weight, and cost.

Especially if you've had it to the World...

I don't think that I'd take it to the world. It would probably shoot great video, but it's rather bulky. I already drag around an obscene amount of camera gear. I'll probably get something like the Canon HV20 for our next trip to WDW.

If you have a mini-DV camcorder, can you just plop the mini-DV's in your regular DVD player to watch your videos

No. Mini-DV is tape. They are little, bitty tapes. When shooting mini-DV, you should tranfer your footage to your computer, edit it, and then distribute it via DVD. It's more work, but it results in better quality output.

You are probably thinking about camcorders that shoot on little DVDs. With those, you can play the discs on any DVD player. If you intend to just shoot video and watch it without any editing at all, they are a convenient choice. Just be forwarned that not even Steven Speilberg shoots video that other people would find interesting without at least some editing. It's sort of like taking pictures without being able to through away the bad ones, only worse.

Is this because we have just a CD burner on our computer?

Yes.

Do I need to get a DVD burner to make DVD's that we can play on our DVD player to watch on tv?

I believe that you can burn then in VCD format and that will play on most, if not all, DVD players. The quality and/or the playback time will probably be reduced. I'm not sure what other DVD capabilities (like menus, chapters, etc) you'll lose with a VCD.

I would recommend that, if your computer has a USB 2.0 port rather than just USB 1.1, you buy an external DVD burner and burn DVDs rather than CDs. I think you can pick up an external DVD burner for something in the neighborhood of $50 on NewEgg.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

In the description, it also says that it features an SD card slot. What's this for?

Most video cameras with an SD slot use it for still pictures. Most video cameras now can take photos. The photos are generally inferior to what a modern digital camera can do, but they are much better than nothing at all.

Just to clarify a few confusing abbreviations:

SD can mean Secure Digital (a type of memory card) or Standard Definition (the way TVs were before High Definition).

HD can mean High Definition (which can be 720 or 1080 lines of resolution) or Hard Disk (which some video cameras record on).

 

[HarambeGuy]

Thanks all for the input.

Mark, I'd dearly love to have the time and budget to try the nice HiDef camcorders, but I'm looking for a more basic model that the whole family could take turns with (should have said so before - Doh!). Still, I enjoy hearing about the fancy stuff

My plan was to stick with Mini-DV because I do edit a lot, add titles, background music, the whole nine yards. Am I right in thinking that the Hard Drive camcorders still have not caught up with Mini-DV for picture quality? I'm guessing it may take a while because of the physical need to do more head movments per write on the HardDrive vs tape, which means a more robust compression format is needed.

Anyway, keep the stories coming folks, and Thanks!

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Am I right in thinking that the Hard Drive camcorders still have not caught up with Mini-DV for picture quality?

There are a lot of things that combine to make up the picture quality of a camcorder, including the lens, the sensor, the image processor, etc. Oddly enough, the media on which a digital camcorder writes doesn't really directly affect the picture quality.

You don't compare the quality of a digital camera based on whether it writes JPG files to a compact flash card, SD card, memory stick, CD, or a hard disk, do you? You shouldn't. The media just stores the numbers that make up the JPG file. The media doesn't directly impact the picture quality.

It's almost the same thing with video. Most mini-DV camcorders today record a format called DV. Sony's Digital8 camcorders used the same file format but wrote it on 8mm tapes. Some mini-DV camcorders record new formats like HDV and AVCHD. So just saying mini-DV doesn't really say anything about the image quality.

As a general rule, with the current crop of consumer grade standard definition camcorders, mini-DV camcorders record in the DV format while hard disk and CF/SD camcorders record in MPEG2 or MPEG4. There are differences between DV, MPEG2, and MPEG4, but none is inherently superior to the others in image quality.

The biggest advantage to DV is that it uses less compression and each frame of video is encoded all by itself. With MPEG2 and MPEG4, frames of video are encoded in groups (usually about half and second worth). That makes it easier to edit DV footage compared to MPEG2 and MPEG4. It also means that DV footage takes up much more space on your hard drive while you edit it.

MPEG2 is what is used by DVD players and is pretty common. Most hard disk and CF camcorders made today use it. It is also what HDV uses. You should be able to get better picture quality in the same amount of space as DV using MPEG2, however most camcorders take advantage of the compression to record more video in less space at the cost of picture quality.

MPEG4 is a newer, more space-efficient format. It is not very common yet, although the AVCHD format uses it. It requires more computer power to decrypt than MPEG2, so it is even harder to edit. It may be the format of the future, but it's not something I'd want to work with today.

 

[Amy]

Thanks for all your responses! Boy, this sure can be confusing. Looks like I've got to find some time to hang out at Best Buy/Circuit City and check out all the diff. camcorders, figure which is easiest to use and which will require us to buy the least extra "stuff" to get our videos into a format we can watch on tv. Technology is great, but you sure do have to work harder just to make a simple purchase!