For digital camcorders, how do u compare tape to mini DVDs to the new hard-drive models?

Answer 1

DV is called Digital Video. MiniDV is an uncompressed video format which even the professional camcorders that costs £5000 uses this format.

The DVDs are compressed format but you will not see much difference on a small TV if you compare it with miniDV. You can imagine, the file size for 17mins of DV is 4GB (Gigabytes) and for DVD 30mins = 1.4GB. So how much video is compressed, you lose the quality.

Similarly, I never would go for the hard drive camcorders on any condition. The video is highly compressed. But yes you can also record video in a DVD quality so a 20GB hard drive camcorder can hold 4 hours of DVD quality video or 20 hours of poor qualilty video. What if you are on holidays for 10 days and you want to record more than 4 hours? Can't record more coz you are run out of disk space.

Well my preference:
DV is the best format, quality and reliable. You can record video to computer and then burn high quality DVDs or record video back to miniDV tape after editing.

For DVD, i would say it is very easy to use, as once you record video, it can be played directly on most DVD players. Note that I said "most" instead of "all". Some DVD players only support some type of DVD discs (+ and - R or RW).

I hope this helps.
Oh also, Hard drive camcorder will never be included in my list.