Posted by David Matthew Wood on 04/21/06 22:22

> Just watched the same wedding that I recorded with my JVC SXM250U analog
> camcorer, with a friends Sony Mini DV camera on a DVD that she burned for
> us. Boy what a difference!

Like other people have said, miniDV is simply better as far as quality
is concerned. The amount of digital compression used on DV is extremely
low for one thing.

>
> The audio and picture both came in much clearer! But then again I believe
> she had a mic attached to the speakers and somehow inlined into the
> camcorder, which was an unfair advantage, so it was obvious the audio came
> in clearer. But I did notice a individual that lacked a mic, so when he
> spoke the audio was not a ton better than my JVC. She was the person
> assigned to record the wedding. I just did it for fun, so she did get some
> equipment that I did not have.

I wouldn't call it an unfair advantage, if you are really serious about
taping something of importance, you SHOULD mic people the best you can.
If they are already mic'd, then getting a line out from the audio system
there is ideal....of course for most consumer camcorders that have audio
inputs, you have to attenuate from line level to mic level first as most
of them only let you use the mic jacks when you're recording.

>
> Its not that I cannot live with a analog camcorder (especially with my
> budget), the mini DV ones are much nicer! I saw a JVC analog camcorder like
> my own selling for $150 at Circuit City the other day, and the cheapest Mini
> DV camcorder was selling for $300. It lacked a light, because it had
> nighvision. I do not know anything about this and if it has any advantages
> over a camcorder light.

Does it have sound in jacks that can be used while recording? Sounds
like that's what you want. The recording format whether it be VHS, Hi8,
Digital8, miniDV, DCcam, etc of course has nothing to do with this.
As for lighting, like all cameras, the one that is on the cam is not at
all effective unless your subject is very close to you and even then it
should be a considered a fill light if anything.

>
> But I do have a question.
>
> Since my ibook lacks a DVD burner, it looks like my export format will have
> to be VHS. Will this greatly reduce the videos, so that this Mini DV
> camcorder will be just like my JVC analog camcorder?

The generation loss will be less, but VHS is always going to be the weak
link in the chain here. Why don't you get a DVD writer? They aren't
expensive at all anymore. I picked up a nice Pioneer internal IDE
writer for $70 last year and it supports many formats including Dual
Layer. As far as your ibook does, just mount the drive in an external
firewire case or something.

> If this be the case,
> then there is no point to the Mini DV camcorder since I will not be able to
> convert to DVD.

Well, what format is your JVC anyway?

>
> The friend that recorded the wedding is not using a computer, but a DVD
> recorder (which I lack). I think if I were to spend, it would have to be on
> a external DVD burner for my ibook G4.

Again, not a bad investment these days.

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