Electronic Music 411 - cheap film intrests -

edited: Jul 06 2006 + LogicFray

colin do you really want a VHS camcorder? those fuckers are HUGE, and good luck finding one in good condition. I havent seen one of those since I was a kid!

There are a few choices these days.

1. VHS-C= this is a little bit older format that uses mini VHS tapes in a medium size camera. It is one of the easier formats because you it is the only one that you can take your small tape and put into an adapter that lets you stick it straight into a VCR. out of all the newer choices this one has a lower resolution.

2. DV camcorder=This is the most popular choice these days, it is a tiny camcorder using a small cassette tape that holds 60minutes on high quality, the price can be pretty reasonable too. Quality and resolution is very decent. Instead of putting a tape into an adapter you would have to run a cable to the VCR inputs to dub a copy to VHS tape. another thing you can do with it is hook it up to your computer (using a firewire port) and then you can edit or burn to DVD. This is what I would probably recommend for you.

3. DVD camcorder- While it may seem like a good idea they are still probably have the worst price to performance ratio. They record to MINI DVD that holds 30 minutes, unfortunately the quality isnt the greatest on the cheaper models due to bad compression to the disc. The cheapest camcorder is around 400$ for these. Computer editing while possible is really a pain in the ass, I figured out a way to do it using DVD shrink and another program, but I had to figure it out by myself, even online i couldnt find any info on how to do it. The main benefit here is that you can put your Mini DVD straight into a dvd player and watch it on TV. also since the recording is digital you can skip around the disc quickly instead of rewinding or Fast forwarding a tape. to play these in a DVD you have to finalize them (took up to a half hour on a few I tested)

4. Digital 8mm= medium camera size , lower resolution than a DV camcorder, but still has the ability of a firewire transfer to your PC. These camcorders are pretty cheap but i would probably go with a DV camcorder because they are very very close in price.

5.Digital camcorder- These are pretty cool, they are the smallest camcorders and they use a built in hard drive to save your movie, they are expensive and the quality does vary alot on these models. for a 20GB (4.5hours) model its about 600 bux. they transfer to your computer via USB or to your VCR or DVR via rca or svideo cables. Just like DVD you can skip around your recording almost instantly. the downside is that the media is non archiveable meaning once you run out of space on the camera you MUST download it to your computer to free up recording time. also keep in mind that even though they say it can record for 4.5 hours the battery most come with doesnt last longer than 1.5 hours so keep that in mind too.

In general the quality of any of these camcorders is determined by the CCD (charged couple device). it is basically the "electronic eye". The larger size the CCD the better quality in the picture (better contrast) the light colors are brighter the darks are darker. You will run into 2 diff types of these as well, lower end ones with one CCD. and higher end ones with 3 CCDS. A one CCD camcorder will process all 3 colors through that one CCD chip on the camcorder. A three CCD camcorder has a seperate CCD for different colors. the result is a much more vibrant color in your picture. If you have seen what a component hookup on a TV looks like then you know what I am talking about. I wouldnt worry about it too much since your trying to keep it cheap and the 3 CCD models start at roughly 500 bux.

I think Mini DV is the best choice for the money for what you are tryin to achieve.
well i hope this helps you out, and sorry for being so long winded

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