The future of video cameras?

Question

I have a report on them do tomorrow and I cant find anything about how video cameras will be in the future. So if you know anything about them or have any good websites, please let me know.

Answer 1

NOTE: Long, possibly boring technical discussion. Bear with me here, though. There's lots of info.

More and more, camcorders are going to need to interface easily with computers. That used to be something only for video professionals and serious hobbyists. Today, however, HUGE numbers of average people are using their computers for video. Just look at how YouTube has become a cultural phenomenon.

So, camcorders now have to connect to computers. With older camcorders, you had to buy a converter box or capture card for your computer to make your video digital. Now, almost all new camcorders are digital. Use a computer's Firewire port to connect your camera,, open up simple software like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker, and you're doing basic video editing. However, this "digital revolution" has, for the most part, happened already. We want to know what happens next.

Let's start with one key word: "tapeless."

For a long time now, buying a camcorder has meant buying the appropriate tapes, and buying a new tape every time you used up all of your old tapes. Using all of these tapes causes problems; they take up space, they wear out, and they cause wear and tear on the camcorder's heads over time. Now, we're seeing a trend towards tapeless solutions. Many camcorders are using hard drives (or memory cards, such as Panasonic's high-definition P2 cards in their professional camcorders like the AG-HVX200), and that's a trend that you're going to see continuing.

It will take some time for hard drives to become mainstream, for a few reasons. For one, hard drives are expensive (for example, those P2 cards cost hundreds of dollars), so you can't just buy a new one every time you use up all of your space.

Tape is still much less expensive, so it's easier to just get new ones when you fill up all of your space. It's also still one of the best ways to make backup copies when you're done shooting video. So, many camcorders will continue to use tape formats for a long time (MiniDV, for example, is an extremely common tape format).

Another alternative to tape is the use of optical discs, such as DVD. They're inexpensive, they don't take up much space, and they work with almost any computer these days. Furthermore, you can just copy the files onto a computer quickly. For tape formats like MiniDV tape, the computer has to capture the video in real-time. One hour of MiniDV tape will take one hour to capture. For DVD, copying the files to a computer is faster than this.

There are problems with DVD, though. The main one is that it uses high compression to fit all of that video into that amount of storage, which can cause some quality loss. This is a BIG drawback, and it's the main reason that I'm sticking with MiniDV these days. Furthermore, editing the DVD format has always been a bit tricky, though software developers are figuring out ways to deal with it. Still, it's another reason why I've stayed away.

I'm sure that one of these days, somebody will figure out a way to get uncompressed video onto an optical disc. Then, that format will take off. For now, though, tape still offers the better quality when compared to DVD.

Some disc formats are gaining ground. XDCam is one of them, and it's a high-definition format used in professional camcorders. For example, I've seen that SportsNet New York uses XDCam. Drawbacks? The main one is that It's expensive, roughly $30 for a single disc.

Speaking of XDCam, P2, and other new formats, here are two more HUGE words: "high definition."

For decades now, we've been watching roughly the same TV formats. It's that slightly rectangular box, in a 4:3 width:height ratio. Now, high-definition formats are all the rage. They're nearly doubling and tripling the details we can see on the screen, and they're feeding them to us in a widescreen, 16:9 width:height ratio. It's catching on slowly, but prices are dropping VERY quickly, and more and more people are buying HDTV sets. Naturally, people will want to shoot high-definition video on their own.

HD camcorders used to be something used only by the pros, and you could buy a few cars for the cost of a hi-def camera. Now, professionals can use cameras like the Panasonic AG-HVX200, which I mentioned earlier for its P2 cards. For about $5,000, it's a fairly affordable solution for people and organizations who make video for a living.

For the average consumer, there's a format called HDV, which is a compressed high-definition format. It's not true HD, but it's still great video. HDV can be recorded onto good ol' MiniDV tapes, which are widely available. There are now HDV camcorders available for under $1,000.

In short, you'll see more tapeless camcorders, and you'll see more high-definition camcorders.

Hope this helps! Any other questions?

Answer 2

Video remains very popular. Video is no longer limited to Camcorders, but also appear in Cellphones and digital "still" cameras. Video is on the 'net, as email attachments, webcam and you-tube-like MP4 streams directly out of the camera, add this to traditional tape, DVD, hard drive and SD card storage media. Cameras will be smaller, lighter, more versitile and incorporated into different devices. Can the combination Toaster/Video Cam be far away?