Camcorder Format Choices

When choosing a camcorder, remember that the way the camcorder records video determines the possibilities and limitations for what you can do with your footage. 

Standard Definition (SD) or High Definition (HD)

Standard- and High-Definition refer to the pixel density of the images your camcorder produces.  SD camcorders typically produce 720 x 480 resolution, which corresponds to the American NTSC standard.  This video looks pretty good on your TV, and works well for uploading to websites such as YouTube. If you're producing DVDs, consider whether your audience is likely to have an HD DVD player.

HD camcorders may produce video in either of two standards - 1080i (or 1080p), which is 1920 x 1024 pixels, or 780p, which is 1280 x 720 pixels.  HD looks unquestionably better when displayed on an HD TV, or other high resolution monitor. Depending on the kind of compression the camcorder uses, it may also require considerably more space on the recording medium.  Higher compression uses less space, but may also reduce the image quality.

HD camcorders are generally more expensive than SD, but it's possible to get HD camcorders fairly cheaply these days.  The introduction of HD camcorders has driven the price of SD camcorders quite low, so again, depending on the use, you should perhaps give them some consideration.

Storage Medium

A camcorder may use one or more of several different recording media:

• Video tape
• Hard disk
• Flash memory (Compact Flash, Secure Digital, or Memory Stick)
• Recordable DVD

MiniDV video tape is commonly used for SD camcorders, but many of the early HD camcorders used it, as well. The video quality may typically be a bit better, because of the compression algorithms used, than for any other medium, and MiniDV content is supported by more video editors than any other. The media is removeable, and cheap enough that you can retain original tapes as backup. You can affordably take as much tape with you as you might need for a trip without off-loading to a computer. MiniDV camcorders are usually less expensive than other models.

On the downside, tape has the disadvantage of being a linear playback medium, requiring you to rewind or fast forward to review your footage. Then you have to seek to the end to record new footage. Your computer needs a FireWire connection for off-loading content from the camera. Finally, tape-based camcorders are typically larger and heavier than all but the DVD-based camcorders.

DVD storage is attractive to many, for a couple of reasons. Being able to pop the DVD out of your camcorder and watch it with a DVD player is a convenience that no other medium provides.  As with tape, you can take along whatever extra media you need to accommodate the length of your shoot. If you take mostly home movies, and you aren't into editing, you don't even need to mess with a computer.  You simply keep your library of DVD's, and unlike your old video tapes, you can jump instantly from one part of the video to another. 

However, to use the DVD's produced by your camcorder as your sole storage/play medium, you'll need to make sure you have the right kind of DVD player to match the camcorder's DVD format -- particular concern with High Def camcorders.  The expense of writeable DVD's can also be a discouragement.

Hard disk storage is now common in middle-range camcorders. The hard drive's addition to the size of the camera is typically less than miniDV, but more than flash memory. It's biggest advantage is that it offers greater storage capacity (commonly 40, 60, or 120 gigabytes) than any other medium. It's biggest disadvantage is that you can't swap out the hard drive for an empty one when it gets full.  Downloading its contents to your computer, however, is much faster than with tape.

Flash storage, while common in digital cameras, has only recently come to be used in camcorders.  Flash memory cards -- most commonly, Secure Digital (SD or SDHC) or SmartMedia (SM or SMC) -- are now available that have both high capacity (up to 32 gigabytes) and relatively low cost.  They are still too expensive for most people to use them for permanent archival storage, but inexpensive enough to keep one or two extra cards around for longer shoots.

Camcorders that use flash storage can be smaller and lighter than any of the alternatives, and the reduction in moving parts may reduce their vulnerability to shock over that of other types. The downside for flash media is its data transfer rate, which is the lowest of all the listed options.  The data transfer rate, which is the speed that data can be recorded to and read from the medium, theoretically has implications for video quality.  However, recent advances in the algorithms used for AVCHD recording have minimized this issue for most people.

Storage Format

DV:  If you're buying a Standard Definition camcorder, most likely it will use some version of the DV format - (MiniDV, DV, DVCAM, or DVC-PRO.) It uses a well-refined compression algorithm that provides a good tradeoff between image quality and space.  It has been used for much of the professional video you see on TV. It is supported by more video editing software than any other format.

HDV:  The first format to be employed by HD camcorders, it is usually stored on the same kind of MiniDV tape that is used in many Standard Definition camcorders. It's a great bang-for-the-buck format, offering high quality on a cheap medium.  Currently, the least expensive HD camcorders often use HDV tape storage.

AVCHD: This format never uses tape, and seems destined to become the dominant format for HD camcorders. It uses a highly efficient variant of the MPEG-4 compression algorithm.  Be aware that older versions of video editing software may not support it, so you may need to upgrade. Also,editing AVCHD requires a fairly fast computer with at least a gigabyte or two of memory.