editing video from a hard drive based camcorder vs miniDV

1. donniemac
   Member

   

   Hi everyone,

   New to the forum.  Can someone one direct me to or provide me with info on the following?  Thanks.

   For the last few years I've been  shooting home video on a miniDV canon camcorder.  This allowed me to capture the video to my pc and do frame by frame editing.  I just recently purchased a hard drive based camcorder, but didn't know I could not do frame by frame editing.  I've been using Adobe Premiere Elements 1.0.  Do I need to switch to some other editor?  How much flexibility will I be losing?  I switched from the canon zr300 to a sony DCR-SR82 mainly because I was told that it will greatly improve my video that is shot in low light/poor light.  While researching the editing question I've also read that the quality of edited video is not as good when originating from a hard drive based machine vs miniDV.  I'm starting to rethink this decision.

   Thanks

   Donnie

   Posted 4 years ago #

2. Ryan3078
   Member

   

   Yes, you can edit frame by frame with a hard drive camera.  The only difference between it and miniDV is that a hard drive camera has the video file ready, so you need only to copy it to your computer, rather than play it back in real time while Premiere captures it.  Yet, miniDV is higher quality than hard drive.  Only go for hard drive if you are pressed for time.

   Posted 4 years ago #

3. texas1
   Member

   

   Greetings.  I'm new to the website, and this topic caught my attention.  I just purchased a Sony V1U, and was planning to purchase a Firestore FS4 for video capture.  From what I've read, the matter of hard drive quality vs tape will hold true for HD as well, would it not?  All answers will be appreciated.

   Posted 4 years ago #

4. klopex
   Member

   

   When I purchased my camera (about 8 months ago), I was shopping for a non-High Definition camera. I learned the following:

   I wanted the convenience and storage size of a HDD. However, all HDD based cameras for sale at that time would record video with MPEG-2 compression. This is the type of compression that is used on DVDs. A 4.3GB DVD commonly holds about 2.5 hours of MPEG-2 compressed video.

   The DV data format, which is used by MiniDV cameras (that use MiniDV tapes), performs little compression*. 4GB of DV data is about 15 minutes of video.

   One might argue that the MPEG-2 compression should only lose information that the human eye won't miss. So you could possibly never notice the difference. However, if you want to apply digital effects, zoom in on the video, etc., you will probably desire a higher quality original format.

   I made my decision and bought a MiniDV camera. I sometimes yearn for the convenience of a HDD camera when I am just filming my kid say "ga ga ga," but I am still happy with my choice.

   * I am not knowlegeable about the details of the DV data format. So my comments may be inaccurate.

   Posted 4 years ago #

5. Ken
   Member

   

    texas1,

   It's my understanding that the Firestore HD drives record at a much higher fidelity than the consumer HDD camcorders.  I've read of Firestores being used professionally.  I think you'll find that the Firestore gives you every bit as much detail as recording to miniDV.  I know I've seen magazine reviews of Firestore models somewhere.  You might check this website for a Firestore review.

   Ken Hull

   Posted 4 years ago #

6. donniemac
   Member

   

   Thanks everyone for your replies.  I'm going to give the Sony a chance and if need be purchase an external lamp.  My biggest problem with the Canon miniDV was the grainy quality of indoor footage.  The Sony HAS to perform better with the extra lighting (I'm hoping outdoor will be eqivalent).  Glad to know I can still edit frame by frame.  I don't add many digital effects so hopefully I won't notice too much difference.  Thanks again everyone.

   Posted 4 years ago #

7. matjusm
   Member

   

   I just had a not so good experience editing from a hard drive recording camera. It was a Sony model but can't remember the exact one and for some reason the geniuses who came up with it decided to have the camera record in .mpg format which no normal editing program (Adobe Premiere, Sony Vegas or Avid) can read. Thereby I had to convert the files first which caused a loss in quality (I suppose I could have avoided that if I had an enormous hard drive) but even if there was none of that, the converting step is still very annoying. Why can't they have the camera record into a format that editing programs can read?

   Posted 4 years ago #

8. klopex
   Member

   

   I would recommend for the home user videoing his kids or livestock, etc. to buy a camera that is convenient to use.  I recommend the one who fancies themself to be a director (now or one day in the future) to buy a camera that offers quality.  3CCD, external microphone, lens quality, etc. are much more important for producing a better quality final product. 

   Posted 4 years ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Supported video provider:

youtube, myvideo, funnyordie, gametrailers, collegehumor, dailymotion, glumbert, liveleak, redtube, googlevideo, sevenload, metacafe, clipfish, vimeo