Getting to Know Camcorder Formats

A variety of video recording formats exist to meet almost any budget. By far the most common digital format today is MiniDV, but a few others exist as well. Some digital alternatives are expensive, professionally oriented formats; other formats are designed to keep costs down or allow the use of very small camcorders. (Various analog formats still exist, though they are quickly disappearing in favor of superior digital formats.) The most common video formats are described the following sections.

MiniDV

MiniDV has become the most common format for consumer digital videotape. Virtually all digital camcorders sold today use MiniDV; blank tapes are now easy to find and reasonably affordable. If you're still shopping for a camcorder and are wondering which format is best for all-around use, MiniDV is it.

MiniDV tapes are small — more compact than even audiocassette tapes. Small is good because smaller tape-drive mechanisms mean smaller, lighter camcorders. Tapes come in a variety of lengths, the most common length being 60 minutes.

All MiniDV devices use the IEEE-1394 FireWire interface to connect to computers, and the DV codec serves to compress and capture video. (A codec — short for compressor/decompressor — is a compression scheme that shrinks the size of a DV clip.) The DV codec is supported by virtually all FireWire hardware and video-editing software.

Digital8

Until recently, MiniDV tapes were expensive and available only at specialty electronics stores, so Sony developed the Digital8 format as an affordable alternative. Digital8 camcorders use Hi8 tapes instead of MiniDV tapes. A 120-minute Hi8 tape can hold 60 minutes of Digital8 video. Initially the cheaper, easily available Hi8 tapes gave Digital8 camcorders a significant cost advantage; however, MiniDV tapes have improved dramatically in price and availability, making the bulkier Digital8 camcorders and tapes less attractive.

Sony still offers a wide variety of affordably priced, high-quality Digital8 camcorders — Hitachi has offered Digital8s as well — and the format has modernized to stay competitive. Digital8 camcorders record digital video by using the same DV codec as MiniDV cameras, and Digital8 camcorders also include i.LINK (Sony's trade name for FireWire) ports. Digital8 cameras generally offer equivalent video quality to MiniDV cameras of similar price.

If you already have a lot of old Hi8 tapes and you're on a tight budget, a Digital8 camcorder may be worth considering. Digital8 camcorders have an analog mode, which means they can read the analog video recorded by your old Hi8 camcorder.

Hi8/Digital8 compatibility goes only one way: Hi8 camcorders cannot read Digital8 video.

Other digital formats

Although MiniDV has become the predominant standard for consumer digital camcorders, many other formats exist. In addition to Digital8 (described in the previous section), the available alternative formats include these:

• DVD-R: A few digital camcorders now use recordable DVDs as the recording medium. The main benefit of this format is that you can place a recorded DVD into any computer with a DVD-ROM drive — no FireWire required — or directly into your DVD player. Alas, there are downsides: These units are still quite expensive, and built-in DVD-R drives draw a heavy load from camcorder batteries. If you go this route, plan to use a lot of wall current.

• DVCAM: Originally developed by Sony for video professionals, this format is based on MiniDV but offers a more robust tape design, higher image quality, and some high-end features designed to appeal mainly to professional video producers and editors. DVCAM camcorders tend to cost about as much as a new economy car, and get much lower gas mileage.

• DVCPro: This is another expensive, MiniDV-based, professional-grade format like Sony's DVCAM. Panasonic is responsible for the DVCPro format.

• Digital Betacam: Here's yet another professional format that most of us probably can't afford. Digital Betacam (another Sony creation) is based on the dearly departed Betacam SP analog format, which for years was a beloved format among professional videographers.

• MicroMV: Someone at Sony really likes to create new recording formats. (Remember Betamax?) Sony offers a few consumer-priced camcorders that use the MicroMV format. As the name suggests, MicroMV tapes are really small, allowing MicroMV camcorders to be small and light as well. (Canon somehow manages to make some tiny MiniDV camcorders, but if you must have a teensy-weensy Sony, MicroMV is your format.)

With any alternative recording format, the first two things you should consider are price and availability of recording media. If you're considering a camcorder that uses the WhizbangDV format, ask yourself how many stores sell WhizbangDV tapes. Will you still be able to find WhizbangDV tapes five years from now?

Analog formats

Analog video has been with us for decades, but it is fading quickly from the scene. Countless analog formats still exist. You've probably seen these formats around, and you might have even owned (or still own) a camcorder that uses one. Besides the generational-loss problems of analog video, analog formats usually provide fewer horizontal lines of resolution. The very best analog formats offer a maximum of 400 resolution lines — which is where the very cheapest digital formats start (lots of MiniDV camcorders offer 500 resolution lines or more). Table 1 provides a brief overview of common analog formats.

Table 1 Analog Video Formats