本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛The most important consideration besides the cost of a camera, is whether or not you are working with a digital format (Digital-8, miniDV) or an Analog format (Hi-8, VHS, VHS-C, Super VHS-C). The bottom line is that you will get a better experience with the newer digital formats. If you want to edit home movies and videos on a computer as some point, go digital. If the answer is no, and the quality doesn’t matter much, go with an Analog camera and save a hundred bucks or so. In most cases, you will get twice the quality by using digital instead of the Analog format. Also video editing on your PC will be made much easier. The drawback is that you will pay a little bit more up front, however this price gap keeps shrinking year by year. As an example, in March 2003, Panasonic announced a three-CCD (high quality camcorder) that will retail for under $1000. This is fantastic for anyone who wants to start making great videos today. Keep in mind that if you do decide to go with an analog camera, you actually can get the video from the camera into your computer. It may just take some more steps.
there are two dominant recording methods. One is MiniDV, and one is Digital 8. MiniDV is a growing standard of the Digital Video format, and most digital video cameras record in this format. Digital8 is a proprietary (Sony only) format that is used to record digital video onto Hi-8 style tapes. The Digital8 format not only records onto Hi-8 tapes, it can also play the Hi-8 tapes. You can get started in Desktop Video without having to throw away your old footage. You can bring it into your computer and edit it, and put titles and music over it!
Other Novelty Formats DVD-RAM, MicroMV
Although the DVD-RAM camcorders are starting to improve their editing capabilities and DVD technology continues to advance, I would consider both Micro-MV and DVD-RAM camcorders to be novelty items. Transferring your videos to a computer will be so much harder than if you simply bought a miniDV or Digital 8 camera and a Firewire card.
Make Sure It Has A DV/1394/Firewire Port . Does LCD Size Matter?For some people, the size of their LCD screen is extremely important. Most consumer models will come with a 2.5" or 3.5" LCD screen. Since the LCD screen is a great way to see how your video footage will turn out, it is good to have a large indication of what you are shooting. Some camera's even allow you to do some video editing in the camera, through the use of an LCD screen touch pad. Be warned that your battery power will be consumed at a much faster rate when using the LCD screen. In these situations where you can't plug in to an extension cord, you should use the viewfinder only. Because of this, many people consider the viewfinder choice between color and black/white to also be a major decision factor.
About Resolution: While the DV format is capable of about 550 lines of resolution, some models do not take full advantage of these capabilities. The closer you get to 550 the better your video quality will be. Check out the models by JVC if razor sharp video is the most important quality you seek
Optical Zoom:Some manufacturers hype up the digital zoom capabilities of their cameras stating their camera has "Up to 500x Digital Zoom!" or even as high as 700x... While this sounds fantastic, you really never want to use footage in a video that you achieved while using the Digital Zoom feature. The way it works, is that the lens can zoom a certain amount - once this level has been surpassed, your camera shifts to Digital Zoom. Most of the time, a digital zoom will result in poor picture quality, choppier images, and a noticeable presence of square pixels on the screen. Not good.
about still picture quality, the quality you get with a video camcorder will usually be around 640 x 480 pixels. Most digital camera's will offer much higher quality and will allow you to set the quality for each shot, so you can decide if you want to take a lot of smaller (lesser quality) shots or a few (better quality) shots. Some common picture quality selections (width x height) are: 2240 x 1680, 1600 x 1200, 1280 x 960, and finally 640 x 480. So you can see DV is low on the scale.
other considerable features:
CCD Size/Number of CCDs/Better Lens quality
Your lenses are the eyes of the camera, converting images and sounds into digital bits. The more you pay, the more lens quality you are likely to get. The larger the CCD, the more light it lets in, and the better the video quality. The more CCD's a camera has (only 3CCD and 1CCD camcorders are on the market today) determines how carefully each color is segmented, which results in higher quality videos. Generally speaking, Canon's video cameras are known for very good lens quality, but most companies have models that compare quite nicely.
Optical Stabilization System
USB Web Streaming
etc.
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there are two dominant recording methods. One is MiniDV, and one is Digital 8. MiniDV is a growing standard of the Digital Video format, and most digital video cameras record in this format. Digital8 is a proprietary (Sony only) format that is used to record digital video onto Hi-8 style tapes. The Digital8 format not only records onto Hi-8 tapes, it can also play the Hi-8 tapes. You can get started in Desktop Video without having to throw away your old footage. You can bring it into your computer and edit it, and put titles and music over it!
Other Novelty Formats DVD-RAM, MicroMV
Although the DVD-RAM camcorders are starting to improve their editing capabilities and DVD technology continues to advance, I would consider both Micro-MV and DVD-RAM camcorders to be novelty items. Transferring your videos to a computer will be so much harder than if you simply bought a miniDV or Digital 8 camera and a Firewire card.
Make Sure It Has A DV/1394/Firewire Port . Does LCD Size Matter?For some people, the size of their LCD screen is extremely important. Most consumer models will come with a 2.5" or 3.5" LCD screen. Since the LCD screen is a great way to see how your video footage will turn out, it is good to have a large indication of what you are shooting. Some camera's even allow you to do some video editing in the camera, through the use of an LCD screen touch pad. Be warned that your battery power will be consumed at a much faster rate when using the LCD screen. In these situations where you can't plug in to an extension cord, you should use the viewfinder only. Because of this, many people consider the viewfinder choice between color and black/white to also be a major decision factor.
About Resolution: While the DV format is capable of about 550 lines of resolution, some models do not take full advantage of these capabilities. The closer you get to 550 the better your video quality will be. Check out the models by JVC if razor sharp video is the most important quality you seek
Optical Zoom:Some manufacturers hype up the digital zoom capabilities of their cameras stating their camera has "Up to 500x Digital Zoom!" or even as high as 700x... While this sounds fantastic, you really never want to use footage in a video that you achieved while using the Digital Zoom feature. The way it works, is that the lens can zoom a certain amount - once this level has been surpassed, your camera shifts to Digital Zoom. Most of the time, a digital zoom will result in poor picture quality, choppier images, and a noticeable presence of square pixels on the screen. Not good.
about still picture quality, the quality you get with a video camcorder will usually be around 640 x 480 pixels. Most digital camera's will offer much higher quality and will allow you to set the quality for each shot, so you can decide if you want to take a lot of smaller (lesser quality) shots or a few (better quality) shots. Some common picture quality selections (width x height) are: 2240 x 1680, 1600 x 1200, 1280 x 960, and finally 640 x 480. So you can see DV is low on the scale.
other considerable features:
CCD Size/Number of CCDs/Better Lens quality
Your lenses are the eyes of the camera, converting images and sounds into digital bits. The more you pay, the more lens quality you are likely to get. The larger the CCD, the more light it lets in, and the better the video quality. The more CCD's a camera has (only 3CCD and 1CCD camcorders are on the market today) determines how carefully each color is segmented, which results in higher quality videos. Generally speaking, Canon's video cameras are known for very good lens quality, but most companies have models that compare quite nicely.
Optical Stabilization System
USB Web Streaming
etc.
cheer......................更多精彩文章及讨论,请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net