Which type of camcorder should I buy? MiniDV or HDD?

Question

Hi All,

I am looking to soon purchase a camcorder which I can use to record my son with. Hes doing all kinds of sports and such.

I would also like to be able to upload the video to my computer to edit and record to DVD and to also make DVD's which would run in England where my parents are.

I keep reading and it seems to be the opinion that HDD are the best. But then again MiniDV is over $200 cheaper.

Any suggestions???

Answer 1

some factors laid out:

1. Intention to edit - miniDV outputs the best source file for a trained eye, although the diff. may pass for a layman.

2. Purpose: Sports action - miniDV may be most suitable w/ lesser artifacts w/c is good for edit. Further, Hdd recording output may be suceptible to high-vibration environments.

3. Although both Hdd & miniDV require similar connections to a pc, Hdd has the stored video already in files so that it's easier & faster to transfer to pc. For miniDV, it wud take a much longer time to capture lots of video streams.

4. Hdd can shoot much longer, miniDV has to change tapes by the hr, however, Hdd connotes “all eggs in one basket” where w/o back-up, a short drop could ruin ur memories vs. safer archive on miniDV tapes

5. And Yes, the price of miniDV too.

Is the bias obvious? Though, pro cams use miniDV tapes even for hiDef

On PAL, some intermediate video editing apps are designed to produce in NTSC or PAL. Check this out:

http://video-editing-software-review.top...

Answer 2

Your choices for a camcorder are Hard Drive, DVD, SD or MiniDV. Which you choose depends on your intended use.

A MiniDV camcorder, records at a higher quality picture (less compression) than a Hard Drive, SD or DVD camcorder. This is particularly important if you ever want to edit the video on your computer. You can edit the video from the other types, but because they record in MPEG2, the finished result will have more compression artifacts and rendering will take longer. The average user will probably not notice the difference in quality.

With a MiniDV camcorder, in order to get your video into your computer you have to “capture” the video in real-time, i.e. an hour of video will take an hour to ingest into the computer for editing. A Hard Drive, DVD or SD camcorder records files that can be copied to your computer in seconds.

Because a MiniDV tape holds one hour you have to stop and change tapes each hour of shooting. A Hard Drive camcorder can record for many hours if the hard drive is empty, as long as you have a multi-hour battery. The DVD and SD types are more limited in capacity. However, a hard drive or SD camcorder will fill up and you have to transfer the video to either your PC or a DVD in order to record more video. With a MiniDV camcorder, you simply put in another tape and keep going. The MiniDV tape is very durable and great for archiving your raw footage. Tapes ran about $2.50 each from places like www.tapestockonline.com.

Most MiniDV and DVD camcorders have an eyepiece viewfinder as well as the flip-out LCD. Most Hard Drive and SD camcorders do not have a viewfinder, so you have to rely on the LCD for shooting and that can get real tiring as you hold the camera out in front of you. It is also harder to hold the camera steady in front of you. A viewfinder allows you to hold the camera against your cheek for added stability.

If you expect to do heavy editing, want the best quality picture, and want a good permanent backup of your original footage, the MiniDV tape based camera will be better. However, to get your video into the computer you will need a Firewire interface unless the camcorder uses USB. Make sure your USB or Firewire interface is OHCI compliant to allow the capture software to control your camcorder.

If you don’t care about a viewfinder and don’t expect to do a lot of editing, the Hard Drive camcorder will be easier for casual shooting, but make sure you have plenty of computer hard drive, or a DVD burner, to offload the files as your camcorder’s hard drive fills up. There is no compelling reason to chose a DVD camcorder given the other choices. An SD camcorder only offers small size.

Keep in mind that there are other differences between models, such as the presence of microphone inputs, headphone outputs, AV in and out jacks, etc. Make sure the camcorder you buy has the features you need.

For more detailed information and model ratings, I recommend you spend some time at http://www.camcorderinfo.com/ and http://www.easycamcorders.com/

Answer 3

Get a recorder that records with dvds.You can put those on the computer easy.

Answer 4

HDD.

They are better, plus you can record more, I recommend the Sony HandyCam, they have the easiest upload to the computer, wit ha 1-touch DVD burning button, go with the HDD.