Different companies are releasing many digital camcorder products with new features. Especially memory format camcorders are using is vital for consumers because they mostly need to convert or transfer it to other devices like editing machines. Every memory format has advantages and disadvantages. Also memory format of a camcorder affects many features of device like size and battery life. Today cameras using HDD as memory are increasing but they have also many disadvantages like size and service problems. Also number of camcorders using flash memory cards are increasing but the price of flash memory cards can be higher than camcorders for some brands. How many digital camcorder memory formats are there?
Digital tapes are classical way of camcorder memory formats. There are two standards for this area on the world today and they are Mini DV, Digital 8.
Digital 8 is using by Sony camcorders only and recording on 8mm style tape. It was very popular in 90s before camcorders with HDD or flash memory cards are released but they are not producing in big numbers today. Also Mini DV digital tapes are using by many camcorders. Especially TV channels are using Mini DV because of advantages like smaller size and adaptability to broadcast systems. Camcorders using Mini DV or Digital 8 are cheaper than others but they have also problems like carrying, archiving and converting. They need professional devices to transfer and edit them on computers. But for the costumers like to archive their records in digital tapes and not using computer for video editing, they are still the cheapest way of recording.
DVD camcorders are released in 2000s and they replaced camcorders using digital tapes. They record the video to DVD media. First DVD camcorders were using big DVD media for record and devices were also bigger but then many brands released camcorders recording to small DVD media and it reduced the size of camcorders. Most of the DVD camcorders are recording in MPEG-2 format and it’s possible to watch the videos in any DVD player. It’s advantageous for people who want to record and watch their videos instantly but it’s not for advanced users who want to edit their media. Also it’s easy to find Blank DVD. It was expensive in 2000s but today cheaper than it. Main disadvantage of DVD camcorders is their limited recording time. Especially camcorders using small DVD media have very limited recording time. Also it’s very sensitive while recording it to DVD.
Camcorders with HDD are started to be released after 2005. They have the largest recording capacity ever. It’s possible to record for long hours without breaking the limit. Also customers can watch the videos they recorded on camcorder and they edit it. Main disadvantage of Camcorders with HDD today is battery drain. HDD in camcorders need strong battery and they are decreasing the lifetime of devices. Also they are still sensitive to any little crash still. It’s also common that bad sectors on camcorder HDDs can cause video problems on most important recording of costumers.
Flash memory cards are one of the latest camcorder memory formats and camcorders with FMC are smaller than camcorders with HDD. They are also easy to carry only FMC and transfer it. But it’s still not possible to see FMCs with storage level as HDD.
Camcorders with Blu-Ray recording is the future of sector. Today there’s only Hitachi brand released a camcorder recording into Blu-Ray and it has offering real HD picture and sound quality. But it’s very hard to use and record for standard user still.
