I want to buy a camcorder to make and edit short films. MiniDV or HDD?

Question

The camcorder will for semi-professional use, not to take holiday snaps.

I understand that the MPEG-2 format isn't ideal for editing on most software. I am already familiar with MiniDV but worried that it's useful life is too limited to justify the purchase.

I am yet to be entirely convinced of the practicality of HDD. I don't carry a laptop with me so I reckon that on more than one occasion I'd get stuck with a full disk and more work to be done.

I am not afraid of having to change tapes, nor do I care about having to rewind in order to find specific footage. I'm only interested in quality of sound, picture and efficiency of editing.

Any serious attempts to help me understand are more than welcome.

Cheers.

Answer 1

Maybe this will help:

Which Digital Video Camera Should You Buy?

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article...

Hope this helps, good luck!

Answer 2

If "the camcorder will for semi-professional use" then take a hint from the professionals:

http://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBus...

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/contro...

http://www.panasonic.com/business/provid...

http://pro.jvc.com/prof/attributes/categ...

For the most part, they use miniDV tape. It is cheap, long shelf life (for archiving), and the DV and HDV format used to store onto the tape compresses the least of the available storage media.

If they use flash memory, the video is stored in DV and HDV (Panasonic). If they use hard drives, those are external http://firestore.com/solutions/catalog.a... and they store in DV and HDV.

Because DV and HDV are the least compressed, they contain the most data. Compressed digital video = discarded data = reduced video quality.

Quality of audio between the various storage formats will be about the same if you use the built-in mics. Personally, I only use the built-in mics when I know I will be replacing the audio... otherwise, use an external mic. For the internal mics - please keep in mind that there are within 2 inches of the motor (whether tape or hard drive). Under very quiet conditions, no amount of dampening can address what YOU hear - and if YOU can hear it, so can the internal mics...

Which takes me to "automatic audio level" (mic gain) versus manual audio control. If you are in a quiet environment, the auto mic gain will automatically boost as it "listens" for noise (like the tape transport or hard drive motors). This results in recording a characteristic "whooshing" recorded in the audio track. This can be edited - or, if you turn on a TV or radio or have some other ambient noise going in the background, then it is not a big deal. This can also be edited out, but that is just another extra editing step. Conversely, if the audio is really loud, there can be clipping and very muddy audio because the auto-audio level circuit can't handle the too-loud noise overdriving the automatic circuit.

In either case, proper use of manual audio will eliminate both of these issues. Just because a camcorder has a mic-in jack for an external mic does not mean that it has manual audio control (Canon ZR800, ZR900). Though, if you are not planning to be in really loud or really soft audio environments, they may be "good enough" for you. Getting a really good mic will not fix this, either... the auto mic gain circuit is still in the way. Most of us have no idea what sort of audio environment we're likely to encounter, so getting manual audio control is best...

The least expensive cameras (of which I am currently aware) with a mic in jack AND manual audio control are the Canon HV20, HV30, Sony HDR-HC7 and HC9.

Answer 3

what about canon hg10? maybe it is good camcorder

Answer 4

If you do go HDD, make sure you get additional storage for your desktop. Also as you said depending on the size of the disk you run into the problem of a full disk. I would stick to DV for now until they make larger capacity HDD camera's in the next few years.