Video Camcorder Introduction
Around the world, camcorders, or video camera-recorders, have been a familiar sight for
over two decades. People take them everywhere: to school plays, sports events, family reunions, into the hospital delivery
room, and on vacations. When you go to a popular tourist spot, you are surrounded by them.
Camcorders have really taken hold because they are an extremely useful piece of technology that you can own for under $300, although most digital models with nice to have features cost twice that much or more.
In today's market, the number of features and selling points is broader than ever, meaning that for beginners, stepping into an electronics store for the first time can be a bewildering experience. Digital technology means that not only is high quality recording affordable for most people, analog models can now be obtained for considerably less money.
Camcorder Background
The first commercial video recorder was launched in the United States in 1956 for the television broadcasting industry. By the mid 1970s,
consumer models were developed for home use, to record TV programs and to view rented video cassettes of commercial films.
Traditional video recording works
in much the same way as audio tape recording. The picture
information is stored on a plastic tape with a magnetic coating.
During recording, the tape is wound around a rotating drum inside
the video recorder. As the tape winds its way through the machine
and around the spinning drum, the video pictures are recorded onto
the tape. The audio signal accompanying the video signal is recorded
as a separate track along the edge of the tape. With the new digital
formats, the picture and sound information is recorded as "bits
and bytes" and output as viewable pictures on your TV.
The VHS System
VHS is the world's most widely used system for recording and viewing
videotapes at home. There are over six hundred million VHS recorders
in use worldwide. VHS technology was developed by Matsushita
(Panasonic / JVC) in Japan in the mid 1970's. VHS is now stone age
technology. In terms of quality, there is no comparison with the new
digital formats now available. In addition, the newer technologies
are emerging such as Blu-Ray which
puts VHS further back.
Betamax was developed by Sony in
Japan around the same time as VHS and for a while competed with VHS, had all the same features as VHS,
and the picture quality was marginally superior, but marketing won
the day for VHS.
For the last twenty years, the huge
installed base of VHS recorders in homes around the globe has been
the major obstacle inhibiting the commercial development of a new
home video system.
DVD
DVDs are identical to CDs in size and appearance, but advances in
the amount of information in the form of bits and bytes that can be
recorded onto these discs has meant that full length movies can now
be stored on a DVD - and the picture quality is extremely good.
Mini-DVD can be found in digital camcorders which allows you to
record your video and then place the disc into a DVD player to see
what you recorded.
8mm video tape
In the late 1980's, Sony developed Video 8, a small camcorder tape.
The tape is about the same size as an audio cassette, the quality is
good, and the format is widely used for home filming. A disadvantage
of the video 8 system is that you cannot play the tapes back in your
home video recorder - you have to plug your camcorder into the TV to
watch them. A refinement of video 8 is the Hi-8
system. The tapes look absolutely identical to ordinary video 8
tapes, but the picture quality is superior.
The second home
camcorder format is called VHS-C, and this was developed by
Matsushita (Panasonic). The tapes are slightly larger that Video 8 but their
main advantage is that they can be popped into an adaptor and played
back in your VHS home video recorder. Video 8 tapes cannot be played in
a home video recorder.
Commercial Video Tapes
The earliest video cassettes were developed by Sony.
Their reputation as innovators in TV and video is unparalleled. Their
system was called U-matic, named after the way the tape was wound
around the drum inside the video recorder in a "U"
pattern. The tapes are large and bulky but the U-matic system is
extremely robust and was the de facto standard in commercial video
production up to the early 1990's. It was widely used in school and
colleges, as the cameras and recorders would stand up to any amount
of abuse from students. The picture quality is excellent, but its
main disadvantage is the size and weight of the cameras and
recorders. Sony was at it again when they
developed the Betacam system in the late eighties as a successor to
U-matic. The tapes are identical in appearance to the old Betamax
ones. But that is where the similarities end. The plastic tape
itself inside the cassette is a high tech formulation, and the
system records in an entirely different way from Betamax. The
picture quality is superb, and Betacam and its offspring, Betacam SP
(better known as Beta SP) have been the international gold standard
in professional video up to now. The system is very robust and
relatively compact compared to U-matic. Digital Betacam is the enhanced digital
version of Beta SP.
The Digital Age
The prefix "digital" has been appended to almost every
conceivable piece of electronic technology that has been developed
in the last five years. And video devices are no exception.
Sony and Matsushita jointly
developed the new digital video formats for camcorders. The domestic
digital format is known as DV, but the quality is so good that it is
now widely used in television programs. The professional versions of
DV are known as DVC Pro and DVCAM. They use a similar tape to DV but
both have professional enhancements. If you are considering buying a
camcorder in the near future, you should consider DV - it's not
another overnight sensation - it's here to stay. The most widely
used professional digital formats are Beta SX, a variant of Beta SP,
and Digital Betacam.
Camcorders have evolved now to using mini-DVD, hard disk drive and solid state memory cards
to store video. 30GB and 60GB built-in hard drives store hours and hours of video for eventual
download to a full-sized DVD. As chip sizes increase to 4GB, 8GB, 16GB and more, camcorders will use
memory cards to store video. The advantage here is no moving parts to break down and instant
access to scenes with thumbnail indexing.
The Future
The road ahead in video is via the integration of video with computer
technology. Most professional editing is now done on computers. The
video footage is digitized or fed into the computer system and the
editing is done on screen, in "drag-and-drop" style. The
development of video recorders where the tape has been replaced by a
hard drive, just like in a computer, is already well underway.
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Camcorders
: ...more camcorder links
Which brand names to look for:
Sony, Canon, JVC, Panasonic, Samsung, Hitachi and Sharp are the
dominant manufacturers.
Formats:
Digital models come in different formats
including Digital-8, MiniDV, DVD-RAM, DVD-R and MicroMV.
Analog models come in different formats including VHS, VHS-C,
Hi-8 and SVHS-C. See Camcorder
formats for more.
Prices:
Prices start around $200 for the low end analog models and go
up from there. To go digital the cost will be at least $350
and up. The newer digital models with the latest technology
start around $700 and go up from there to over $1000 and more.
Recording time varies from 20 min. to 120 min. on average
depending on factors such as media format and recording
quality settings. If you are willing to sacrifice quality, you
can double recording times by setting to LP or EP modes.
Media:
Magnetic tapes or optical discs vary in cost from a
few dollars each to $10 or more each depending on the format.
Analog media will be cheaper than digital.
See Camcorder
media for more.
How
to choose a camcorder
What makes up a camcorder
Camcorder Technology
What to look for in a Camcorder
Camcorder Operations
Camcorder Guide
Camcorder Buying Guide
Video compression
Camcorders in 2004
Manufacturers web sites:
• Sony
•
Panasonic
•
JVC
•
Hitachi
•
Canon
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