Digital Video Cameras Types

Digital Video (DV) is an ideal format for anyone wanting to use a camcorder (DV camera) to work with video on the PC or the Web. The most exciting aspect of DV editing is the purity of the content. No matter how much you work with your video, if you keep the data in a digital format, the video quality will be exactly the same.corders.

The analog process transmits video as complete frames, with the receiving device then interpreting and translating the signal into video and audio on a monitor. It is at this interpretation stage that a progressive loss of data, however small, leads to a loss in quality.
Digital video, on the other hand, stays digital (such as '0's and '1's ) with the data constructed to describe the colours and brightness of a video frame.

FireWire (other terms include iLink, IEEE 1394 or 1394EEE) provided both the transfer speed, at 400Mpbs, and consistent rates to allow the average PC user to edit their video like a pro.

In the not too distant past, there was a clear distinction between USB and FireWire. USB 1.1 could not transfer high quality DV; loosely defined as 25 frames per second (fps) with each frame being 640x480 resolution, due to USB's transfer limit of around 11Mbps (or around 1.5MB per second). Transferring DV requires a transfer rate of at least 3.6MB per second, which left FireWire as the only option due to its ability to work at 400Mbps, or up to around 50MB per second. Then along came USB 2.0 with a transfer rate of 480Mbps or around 60MB per second.

There are several types of camcoders, depending on storage format.

DV camcorders
From the introduction of the first DV camcorder using the MiniDV tape format, the choices of DV camcorder have expanded, and there are now several format options to suit the way that you want to work.
If you want to prepare video for the Web, or to write to DVD or VideoCD with little or no editing of video, a disc-based camcorder may be the ideal solution.

Tape-based camcorders
MiniDV tape-based camcorders are the most popular DV camcorder choice, with the first model arriving in the mid-1990s.
The advantages of MiniDV include a proven tape format with widespread availability. M
HD-based camcorders
High Definition (HD) video is creating a lot of interest, mainly due to some spirited campaigning by the cable networks wanting you to buy HD boxes to watch TV. Plus, HD is delivered in a widescreen format (16:9) rather than the normal TV format of (4:3).
However, you won't be seeing camcorders available for the average video maker for some time yet.

Disc-based camcorders
Tape is not the only option when it comes to DV camcorders, for there is a variety of different media including mini DVD discs, removable storage and even hard drives.
Panasonic, Hitachi and Sony have released DVD-based camcorders that can record from around 20 minutes up to 1 hour of MPEG-2 video (depending on the quality selection) directly to small 8cm DVD that can then be played directly in a home-based DVD player. However, there are not many options for consumers, with around a dozen choices available across the three companies.

If you are looking for a small camcorder, take a look at the latest Flash Memory camcorders, such as the Panasonic D-Snap, that use SD cards instead of tape. The huge reduction in SD media prices (you can now get a 512MB SD card for under $90), makes flash card-based camcorders a much more affordable option