Im keen on indie movie making but hesitant to buy hd cam! is minidv likely to be obselete in next 2-3 years?

Question

Im keen on indie movie making but hesitant to buy hd cam! is minidv likely to be obselete in next 2-3 years?

Answer 1

most likely as the quality is not as good

Answer 2

MiniDV is not likely to be obsolete in the next 2-3 years. As long as there is no other media that provides the ease of use, ease of importing for editing, pretty much any editor can handle DV or HDV, and the high-end camcorders (Canon XHA1, GL2, XL, Sony HVR-A1U, V1U, Z1U, HDR-FX1, FX7, Panasonic DVX100B) continue to be the tool for prosumers and pros... and the "automatic archiving that miniDV tape provides for, it will be around.

It is a Digital format with a good shelf life and least amount of compression (hence superior video quality to the currently available alternatives).

The only exception to this at the moment are the Firestore external hard drives  (which still rely on miniDV tape camcorders because of the DV connection - and they are expensive... and the Panasonic P2 cards which are expensive and fewer laptops are including PCMCIA slots on them to read these cards.

AVCHD on hard drives and flash memory is too immature - and at the moment, it continues to be that it compresses too much and it continues to be a challenge to work with (which is why the pros are not adopting it)... and on the standard def front, MPEG2 compression is too much as well. Compression in video land = lost information = reduced video quality = low adoption.