What kind of commercially-available camcorder has the best picture quality?

Question

I want to buy a camcorder for when I have kids, but I want it to have decent picture quality. How is MiniDV? Is it good picture quality? Is it better or worse than Digital-8? Should I just skip tapes altogether and get a DVD camcorder or a pure digital one?

Answer 1

There are two main factors affecting picture quality when choosing a camcorder.

One factor is the quality of the image formed in the camera. This is affected by such things as image sensor type /quantity / size (3 vs 1, CCD vs CMOS, 1/2", 1/3", 1/3.6", 1/4"), lens technology (construction, materials, focus system, etc), and picture processing technology (noise reduction, color correction, etc). These things vary considerably between manufacturers and models and evaluating them can be very subjective because what looks "good" may not always be that which is the most technically accurate.

The other factor is the quality of the recorded picture once it is played back. MiniDV, Digital8, and DVD are all digital recording formats and the two tape formats (MiniDV and Digital8) will essentially be of identical quality. The DVD will have a lesser recording quality than the digital tape formats because the data is compressed more than when recorded on a DVD which will result in some loss of detail.

By "pure digital" I would assume that you mean a hard drive recorder. This too will give essentially the same record quality as a DVD camcorder, which is inferior to that of the digital tape formats. It is also less convenient because it is more difficult to dump the contents than it is to swap a tape or DVD and you must erase before you can record. This is not something that you can do at the last minute.

If you are using this to record children I would recommend that you look for a MiniDV or Digital8 camcorder that has lots of convenience features that will make is easy, cheap, and fast to use. When they are getting ready to take their first steps or are in a school play you will really worry less about the picture quality than the memory quality. And camcorders can only save memories if they are ready to go when the moment arises.

Good luck!
WK

Answer 2

If you plan to edit your video on the computer (cut out bad footage, add music or titles, etc.) then you want to go MiniDV. It is higher quality video than miniDVD. If you do not plan to edit, you may as well just get a DVD or HDD camcorder. They compress the video to MPEG2, which is a more lossy compression than MiniDV.

Digital 8 is a Sony format and I'd just say no. Too many people have been burned by their proprietary stuff that they discontinue after a couple of years, then there is no one to service stuff, you can't find accessories, tapes, etc.

That addresses format as a function of quality.

Also, there are other video quality issues: lens quality (Sony's Zeiss and Panasonic's Leica lenses are tops here); sensor size (bigger is better); and number of CCDs (3 is better than 1).

And the old adage is true: good isn't cheap, cheap isn't good. If you really want good video quality, you need to be looking in the $500+ range.

Answer 3

i cant answer that. i dont think anyone can answer that. but i can say that miniDV is great for editing and picture quality, and better than digital-8. it uses tapes, yes, but anything better than miniDV is a professional format. if you skip tapes all together, itll save you time, but it all depends on what you want to do. you can make edited videos that cut to the point but will take you longer, or you can save some time, and just watch the whole half hour show of little suzie rolling around in her crib. for the best picture quality, get a 3ccd miniDV cam. but its all up to you. if i were you, id go to www.camcorderinfo.com. you find a camcorder there that has exactly what you want.