Sony Announces Three New Camcorders

[Andy Manea]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.photographyblog.com/index.php/weblog/comments/sony_announces_worlds_smallest_minidv_camcorder/' target='_blank'>http://www.photographyblog.com/index.php/weblog/comments/sony_announces_worlds_smallest_minidv_camcorder/</a><br /><br /></div><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/sony_dcr_pc55e.jpg" /><br /><br />Sony presents the world’s smallest and lightest miniDV camcorder* and ultra-modern designed DVD Handycam (*As of November 2004) <br /><br />The world’s smallest and lightest MiniDV format camcorder* the DCR-PC55E and DCR-PC53E will be launched in February 2005. (*As of November 2004) <br /><br />Sony claims that the new miniDV-camcorder models will be around the size of the miniDV-tapes they use 8O while the <i>DCR-DVD7E</i>, their new DVD Handycam available in May 2005, will support multiple formats (DVD-R/-RW/+RW ). <br /><br />Hmmm, multiple formats from Sony ... so what about DVD+R? :wink:

[Philip Colmer]

I had been giving some thought to a DVD-based camcorder as a second unit. The thought of not having to transfer tapes appealed to me. However, a bit of research uncovered the fact that, not surprisingly, the footage is recorded in MPEG2 format.

Why is that a negative? Video editing software doesn't like working on MPEG formats. The format wasn't designed for editing purposes. Most systems transcode the MPEG format into something like DV, for working on, and then will typically have to transcode it back (especially if you are burning a final DVD). Two transfers between lossy compression formats is not good for the quality of the final image.

Shame, really. These camcorders, though, seem to be aimed at the person who wants to easily see their footage straight away without intermediate editing.

--Philip

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Well, given that DVDs are only 4gb in size, it's something one has to live with, till that Bluray/HD-DVD camcorder comes. =P

One thing I wasn't too impressed with as well was the encoding quality.. on-the-fly encoding can lead to some quirky artifiacts.

[Philip Colmer]

Well, given that DVDs are only 4gb in size, it's something one has to live with, till that Bluray/HD-DVD camcorder comes.
This is very true - it is quite interesting to figure out how much the DV tape can actually hold compared to the 4.7GB DVD, particularly given the relatively small size of a DV tape.

--Philip

[ChunkyMonkey]

I too, thought that I wanted something that would write directly to DVD. Then I heard of quality issues and later realized that I couldn't edit MPEG2 videos very well at all.

[Crocuta]

Well, given that DVDs are only 4gb in size, it's something one has to live with, till that Bluray/HD-DVD camcorder comes.
This is very true - it is quite interesting to figure out how much the DV tape can actually hold compared to the 4.7GB DVD, particularly given the relatively small size of a DV tape.

--Philip

Here's the way I figure it. DV has a sustained compressed throughput of 3,600 KB/sec. That's 216,000 KB/min and 12,960,000 KB/hour, which is 12.36 GB/hour. Since a standard DV tape, running at normal speed, lasts for one hour, I figure it must hold a little over 12 GB.