From Analog to Digital: A Six Year Shift

July 1, 2003

From Analog to Digital: A Six Year Shift

Analog camcorders (VHS, S-VHS, VHS-C, S-VHS-C, 8mm and Hi8) were the tools that began the home video revolution. Sony might not have known what they were starting back in 1983 when they rolled out the very first Betamovie, but videographers everywhere should thank them for it. With the advent of digital technology, things are getting smaller and cheaper and, increasingly, due to the popularity of digital camcorders and continuing price cuts, analog camcorders are becoming less and less appealing. Let’s take a brief look at the past few years of the camcorder marketplace.

1998: There are 69 analog camcorders and 17 digital camcorders on the market.

1999: Analog holds steady with 62 models. While DV experiences a jump in popularity, almost double the number of analog camcorders is available on the market at this point.

2000: Analog is still hanging on with 61 models, but there are now 47 digital camcorders available.

2001: Analog begins to lose significant ground, with only 37 models available. Digital models flourish, with 68 models on the market.

2002: Analog’s share plummets to 19 models, while there are still 68 models of digital camcorders available. This is also the model year that RCA exited the camcorder business and the year that Hitachi shifted to exclusively marketing disc-based camcorders.

2003: This year, there are only 11 analog camcorders (with Sharp not offering any new analog models) and a total of 69 digital models. Armed with this data, we can speculate that analog camcorders may soon be a relic of the past, as manufacturers find them less and less profitable and consumers find them less interesting.

School District Picks Casablanca

The Lake Washington School District in Washington (a 40-school district that includes Redmond and Kirkland) has added 38 MacroSystem Prestige and Avio editing appliances to their palette of teaching tools, increasing the number of Casablanca-equipped schools to over 4,000.

“For four years we tried PC-based systems and our experiences were unsuccessful,” says Laurie Pelham, technology staff director for the district. “Now, we use Casablancas because they are foolproof.”