Types
Types Of Digital Video Camera
There are several different types of digital video cameras. This article focusses on consumer grade digital video cameras. These are often known as camcorders (a mixture of camera and recorder) since they also contain recording equipment to store the digital video.
There are numerous storage formats used by digital video cameras. The first distinction is between tape based, optical disk based, magnetic disk based and solid state (flash). Each has their own advantages and disadvantages.
Tape Based
Tape based recorders make use of high storage density of magnetic tapes to make high quality recordings, usually in DV or HDV (high definition DV) format. This is a well established format, giving very high quality pictures. The disadvantage of DV based camcorders is that you’ll probably need a firewire card in your PC if you want to do any editing of the recorded videos. You’ve also got the usual problems associated with tapes; rewinding/fast forwarding takes time, delicate mechanisms and robustness of the cassettes. They are being phased out for consumer use, but are still popular for professionals due to their very high picture quality.
Optical Disk
Optical disk based camcorders record onto removable optical disks, usually DVD. The advantage of this is that you can record something, then immediately play back on a DVD player. DVDs can be easily edited on a PC using DVD authoring software. DVD camcorders can be bulkier than other types due to the size of the DVD mechanism.
Magnetic Disk
Magnetic disk based camcorders use small hard disk drives to store the recorded video. They may be built in or removable disk drives. They will eventually fill up and you’ll then have to transfer the recorded video to a PC or DVD to free up space. Often these have USB connections for easy transfer of video to your PC.
Solid State (Flash)
Solid state camcorders use flash memory to record the video images. They are similar to hard disk camcorders in many ways, using flash memory instead of a magnetic disk. They sometimes have built in memory, but most take external flash cards. Again these often have USB connections for downloading recorded video to a PC.