What's better Mini DV or Hard-drive?

Question

I'm buying a new video camera and I want Mini DV tape because it is very good quality, but I'm having trouble trying to find a good one that used tape these days. Is it worth the trouble or should I just get a Hard-drive?

Answer 1

DV and HDV stored to miniDV tape (or external hard drives like those from Firestore) compress much less than the internal hard drive based camcorder.

More compression = discarded data = reduced video quality.

What is your budget? The Canon ZR800, 900 and 930 or good because they have a mic in jack - but they do not have manual audio control. The least expensive camcorders (regardless of media storage type) with a mic in jack AND manual audio control are the Canon HV20, HV30, Sony HDR-HC7 and HC9.

Remember - there is also a transfer speed issue that is often confused as an "ease of use" issue. It may be faster to copy video files from a hard drive based camcorder using USB - as compared to importing real-time DV or HDV... but the FIRST step you should take with the copied HDD camcorder footage is copy those files to another hard drive or burn them to optical disc for back-up... with the MiniDV tape, the tape IS that archive/backup... Most of the time your thought was saved with a HDD camcorder just went away.

Answer 2

Hard drive

Answer 3

Go for the MiniDV tapes.  Higher quality!  In my film production and video production classes, we use two big Sony Handycams that usually sell for $3,000 and three smaller Handycams that are probably worth about $300.  All of them use MiniDV.  My teacher for those classes likes MiniDV the best for the quality.

You can get a decent Canon MiniDV camcorder for around $200...try http://www.jr.com.