Sorry your browser is not supported!

I'm not new to the world of digital cameras, but i am new to the world of digital camcorders. DV tapes, memory sticks, resolutions, capture lengths, output formats, and other mumbo-jumbo are killing my brain cells. I'm just looking for a hand out. I'll be needing it to take fairly clear coloured and high resolution videos which i want to later transfer to the computer for editing. Which output format is best for editing-MPEG or DV format? What is DV format? Is it like AVI? Can anyone reccomend a really good DV Camera for a £400 budget? Basiclly, i need a 5 second DV Cameras for beginers course. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you!

Dave

PS: Decent Audio is a must have.

Hmm...is my Avatar working? I can only see the image if i follow the link directly...

-Dave

@Camera - Google it

@Avatar - err, no link or image try again Dave

I put all my Digital Camcorder stuff onto PC. Here's a few pointers:

1. Most "home use" cameras are pretty much the same standard of image. The price difference usually comes from the lens quality, zoom range (real zoom, not digital zoom), and features.

2. Remember, if you're porting it to PC, you don't need fades and sepias and effects, but being able to change the exposure time etc is good. For example, a 1/500 setting means you can film fast action with a clear picture in every frame. The standard 1/50 second will experience blurring under the same conditions - you can't fix that on a PC.

3. You need DV OUT, DV IN is irrelevant unless you want to record back to DV tape. DV IN adds to the cost, the import tax is higher because it's also classed as a video recorder. All cameras have DV IN capability, it's just disabled for the UK market. I'll leave that point there.

4. Recording to DV format takes 2GB for every 10 minutes. MPEG is variable, but you can average 60 to 90 minutes in the same 2GB slot on your hard drive, depending on the quality you require.

5. If you are saving to CD or DVD, MPEG is fine. The quality of the recording is better than your TV is capable of showing. For good quality, bank on 25 minutes on a CD, or up to 90 minutes on a 4.7 GB DVD. Buying a DVD recorder (around £50 for 8/16 spedd, dual layer as I write) is a good investment.

6. If you are editing the footage, you'll want at least twice as much space on your hard drive as the final cut.

7. DV IN needs a firewire port, and a reasonable hard drive. I have an 80GB 7200 RPM disk for my footage (~ £60). A 5400 RPM disk tends to result in lost frames, as it rips the footage in real-time and it's not quite fast enough if it has to recover from glitches.

Hope I helped, now back to my source code...