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Posted by zwsdotcom on 04/16/06 04:37
> cheaper than VHS-C, I think I want to give people tapes rather than VHS-C
> tapes. But I am afraid, if I do this, and then erase over the VHS-C tape,
> the quality will deteriate. This seems to be what happens in many, but not
> all tapes. Will VHS-C have this effect, or will it not?
Any analog copy will lose quality. No way around this. Or do you mean
that reusing an old tape is resulting in a lower quality for a fresh
recording on old tape?
If the latter, then it depends on your camcorder's erase heads and
other issues such as track alignment. I'd suggest a bulk eraser to
"clean" the tapes. However, since the media are in physical contact
with the heads, you're also mechanically wearing out the tape every
time it goes through the machine.
> One day when I get the money I will buy myself a digital camcorder that will
> use Mini DV, DVD, or a hard drive.
If you intend to use this for archival purposes, I would avoid DVD.
Rewritable optical media have an unproven shelf life.
> Does anyone have a digital camcorder and what are your experiences with it
> on your Macs? Can it play full frame video on your Mac? I cant imagine the
*shrug* I have a cheap, cheap RCA (actually rebadged JVC) MiniDV
camcorder with Firewire. I've had it for a few years, but don't use it
much. My Mac mini can play back its output fullscreen but DV video
takes a lot of disk space as you noticed. I've got a few important
videos (my honeymoon, some tests of a rocket motor, etc) archived on
tape.
I also just bought a $88 digital palmcorder (MPEG-4) from Target the
other day. It's also a "5MP" (really 3MP) digital still camera. The
quality of this device is really quite good, mostly limited by the poor
lens. It records directly on SD cards; a 256Mb card holds 80 min at low
quality or 20 min at high quality. It also has TV-out (RCA cable
included) so you can copy your recording directly to VHS tape if you
wish. Unfortunately it stores the files in .ASF format, which is not
very Mac-friendly if you were planning to view and edit files on the
computer. Apart from that, it's extremely light and convenient.
The specific camera I bought (Aiptek IS-DV) is visible at:
<http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/ref=br_1_7/601-5327497-5646540?%5Fencoding=UTF8&frombrowse=1&asin=B0006G332A>
but it's much more expensive online than in the store. I paid about
$120 including tax for the camera and a 256Mb Kodak SD card.
As a side note, the camera uses an NP-60 Li-Ion battery with a quoted
life of 90 minutes. This is apparently an industry standard size, I
bought a set of two replacements on eBay for about $8.
> With digital tapes, DVD's or hard drives, can you erase and the record over
> without a lowering of quality?
Yes to all of those, and also obviously to the flash memory cards I
mention above. However in the DVD case, there is an erase lifespan, I'm
not sure what it is.
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