Sony dcr-hc models?

Question

i mean... they use cassettes to record.. and isnt it getting a bit old and its not so popular with cassettes, since dvd and hard drive are use often... well i dont really know which type to get, cuz i heard cassettes are more harder to transfer into the computer. i want a bit of updated specs on the camcorder and i want it have low light.. and the built in mic.. so the audio is really good when theres a lot of noise going on... so apparently i want one thats similar to dcr-hc 96 but without the dcr-hc models..

Answer 1

The DCR-HC range are MiniDV camcorders.  They record on a tape cassette, but so do very modern high def camcorders.  Pros use tape based camcorders too - it's a GOOD thing!  They're cheap, robust, give the best video quality and they're a good archival medium, too.  Capturing video on the PC isn't hard but you need a firewire card in your PC (they're cheap and easy to install) and the capturing is done in real time, i.e. an hour of video takes an hour to transfer.

All camcorders have a built in mic, but you need an external one if you're using it somewhere noisy - the internal one will pick up everything.  If it's very loud, you'll need manual controls otherwise you'll end up with mush.

So, having said all that, the DCR-HC96 isn't a good choice for you - its low light performance is quite poor and the external mic connection is a bit of a kludge.  

I'll leave it to someone else to recommend a camcorder - I'm not up to date with the latest and greatest.

Answer 2

I bought one of those, and it is brilliant.I can only find one downside - the tape (mini dv) creates absolutely huge files. This means the picture and sound quality are wonderful, but will only fit on a DVD. Too big for a CD.

Answer 3

Just because a technology is proven to work well over a couple of years does not mean it has been replaced by newer technology - especially when the newer technology is not better.

DV - the format store to MiniDV tape - is digital... the DV stands for Digital Video. The good news is that DV does not compress the digital information as much a most consumer internal hard drive and flash memory camcorders do... And - DVD based camcorders compress the most so they actually provide the worst available quality of the available consumer storage methods - especially for any sort of editing or computer transfer.

DO NOT BUY A DVD BASED CAMCORDER.

Personally, I take the hint from the professionals:

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

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

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

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

There is one Panasonic hard drive exception in the pro line - and the pros I know will say that camcorder should be in the consumer area - not the pro area.

The hard drives used by the pros are external

http://firestore.com/solutions/catalog.a...

For ease of transfer, firewire import is easy to do. Please do not confuse "easy" with "fast". They are very different. I connect my miniDV based camcorder to my computer with a firewire cable and press import. So, I don't know what is so terribly difficult about that.

I agree that USB transfer of video files from hard drive or flash camcorders is faster - but then you have an extra step of archiving the video and either copying to another external hard drive or burning optical discs - so most of the time you "saved" in the intitial transfer process, you lose in this archiving step... With miniDV tape, the tape IS the archive, so no extra step. Just don't re-use the tapes.

You said, "so the audio is really good when theres a lot of noise going on" - in my opinion - there is no camcorder with a "good" built-in mic. Since we don't know what sort of stuff you want to capture to video, it is difficult to recommend - but if any loud audio is expected, you really, really, need manual audio control. The cheapest camcorders (that I know of) with manual audio control are the Canon HV20, HV30, Sony HDR-HC7 and HC9. They all have external mic jacks - and use miniDV tape (and can shoot in standard definition AND high definition).

Without manual audio control and loud audio environment, the automatic mic-gain circuit will be over-driven and result in lots of clipping and very muddy - non-usable - audio being recorded.