Videocamera

A videocamera is used for image recordings and its constant conversion into electrical signals. Other than with a filmcamera, which is based on the technique used in photography, the image signal is always readily available. Whilst amateur-models dispose of a simple built-in microphon for sound recordings, professional cameras (f.E. for broadcasting) have high quality ports for external microphones.

Camcorder Types

A videocamera having an integrated video recorder (playback and viewing on the display), is called a camcorder. Nowadays both terms are used in the same fashion in day to day language. The most significant difference with the camcorder is the form of the recording medium or recording format.

Mini DV Camcorder

The most commonly spread digital camcorder is a DV-device which records on MiniDV tape (small magnetic tape format) with an approximate recording span of 60 minutes. This recording method is by no means obsolete, but still offers the best image and sound quality (stereo), because the DV-format, in comparison to compressed MPEG formats, can store great amounts of detail. Therefore it is particularly well suited for video editing and the only format which is used by amateurs and professionals alike. The transmission to the computer however is slightly complicated, because it has to happen in real time. On the other hand the magnetic tapes are also useful for long time archiving.

DVD Camcorder

The DVD-camcorder record on a mini-dvd. The records are stored as data and can easily be transferred onto a computer. Each blank disk offers a maximum of 36 minute of storage space for a recording, however it has to be noted that, not all DVD formats are compatible with their playback devices. In addition these camcorders use the MPEG 2 format, which compress data strongly and thus causes lossy images when confronted with high details or fast movements.

Storage Card Camcorder

These camcorders record data on a storage card (mostly SD = Secure Digital Card), are small and need no mechanical drive, which makes them insensitive against tremor. Modern storage cards can currently store up to 8GB of film material, while as 1 GB is needed for 13 minutes of film. The storage devices models compress the data strongly and write it as MPEG2 or MPEG4, which makes them hard to handle in editing. Professional cameras can write on storage cards as well, however they use a more professional recording format.

Harddisk Camcorder

This records directly to a hard drive, which is expensive, but offers a lot of storage space for recordings. Most modern models dispose of 30 to 60 GB, and at times even 120 GB capacity. Professionals mostly use harddrives as external storage devices, regardless the recording without tape is just slowly coming to stay in TV- and cinema productions. The majority of consumer-harddisk camcorders record image material in compressed MPEG 2 format. This form allows for fast transfer to the PC, but are often incompatible with all common editing software which makes them useless for serious working.

Digital Video (DV)

"Digital video" is the generic term for the 1994 introduced DV-standard. These include the tape formats DV, MiniDV, DVCAM, Digital8, HDV, DVCPro, DVCPro50 and DVCProHD.

Digital18

Digital 18 is understood as the digital development of the product line Video8/Hi8 and uses the same tapes as its analog predecessors as well as the common DV-codec.