Which Format?

With so many choices available to you right now, it’s not surprising if you’re a bit confused about which camcorder recording format to go for. Never fear, help is at hand! Here are our thoughts on current camcorder formats.

Having some idea of what you want to use your first camcorder for is the first step; now you have to decide what recording format you’ll use. Although there are lots of recording formats to consider, the choice might not be as difficult as you might think – largely because the current market has virtually decided that the future is solid-state!

To tape or not to tape?

Since the earliest days of camcorders – whether for consumer or professional applications – the standard recording medium has been tape. Back in the days of analogue, we were using either VHS or Betamax to record loved ones, friends and colleagues; since the mid-1990s the predominant digital recording format has been Mini-DV (also known simply as “DV”), which revolutionised video recording due to the smallness of the tapes which, in turn, enabled manufacturers to built more compact camcorder bodies.

Today, as we enter a second decade of the 21st century, tape-based formats are very much in decline. Even Mini-DV’s High Definition derivative, HDV, has left the consumer domain with only professional users and serious enthusiasts using the format. With all manufacturers having the dropped HDV in the consumer domain, tape’s swansong was sung in 2009. If you’re thinking of buying a camcorder for home or leisure use, it’s best to avoid tape altogether.

Flash Memory for true solid-state recording and playback

In much the same way that you probably take still photos with a digital stills camera and save your images to a Memory Card (either SD or Memory Stick), so it’s fast becoming the norm to use the same approach with digital video.

The vast majority of camcorders aimed at both the consumer and semi-professional markets now save their movies and images to flash memory in the form of built-in memory (that is, memory that’s embedded in the camera’s body at the manufacturing stage) or in the form of removable memory cards.

An increasing number of models offer both – and these are referred to as twin memory camcorders. As the cost of flash memory comes down, you can expect to see many more models from all the main brands entering the market during 2010 and beyond.

What of DVD and HDD?

For a few years, we witnessed the introduction of camcorders that offered recording and playback of video using recordable and re-writable DVD discs. A variety of DVD-ROM and DVD-RAM camcorders gave users the convenience of saving their movie clips onto a convenient format that, in turn, enabled them to slip them into their set-top DVD player at home, in the classroom or at the workplace and play back with ease. DVD camcorders came and went within a few short years and already the recording medium is all but obsolete. Avoid them.

HDD (hard disc drive) based camcorders are still in abundance. Pioneered by JVC with their excellent Everio HDD camcorder products, we’ve seen all the main manufacturers building models around internal HDDs – some of which offer storage capacities up to 120GB using very small shock-resistant HDDs – but even this is now stepping aside in favour of Flash Memory as the primary storage medium for camcorder and video camera movie clips.

Standard Definition or High Definition?

Camcorders that aren’t labelled as high definition create and store movie clips as standard definition. Regardless of the means by which the movies are stored (see above), a standard definition clip will conform to traditional TV and video specifications in either widescreen (16:9) or non-widescreen (4:3) screen aspect ratios.

Of course, as more and more consumers but large-screen high definition television displays, so it is that the sales of high definition camcorders is rising proportionately. With HD now accounting for such a large slice of the camcorder market, it doesn’t really make sense to acquire standard definition technology at all. When comparing like-for-like on a good HDTV display screen, the difference between standard definition and high definition camcorder movies is palpable. In other words – go for high definition!

What High Definition camcorder format?

One format that didn’t see its debut until early 2007 is AVCHD. What’s impressive about this format is that it packs a huge amount of full-specification HD picture and sound information into very small spaces – such as thumbnail-sized memory cards! Using SDHC (high capacity SD) cards or even Memory Stick Pro DUO cards (for Sony products), it’s now possible to store several hours of AVCHD video for direct playback on a suitable HDTV.

With flash memory prices destined to come down dramatically over the next couple of years it’s quite reasonable to expect recording costs to come down drastically; thanks to the marvel that is AVCHD – a format that encodes high definition video as MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, much the same system as is used by HDTV broadcasters as well as producers of HD video on Blu-ray discs, etc. – we have the potential to record video clips that have a reasonable change of a “future-proof” existence.

Well, until the next format comes along anyway.

Conclusion

If you’re looking at buying a relatively low-cost camcorder for social use that’s not only easy to use but produces very high quality that can be viewed on a large-screen TV or uploaded to YouTube, then choose a camcorder that employs the AVCHD recording and playback format.

For ideas on which model to buy, read the reviews on this site!