Cameras Cameras Cameras..

Before filming commences, a lot of preparation is necessary. First of all, I need to buy a digital video camera. I obviously have a budget for this and I am intending to get the best camera for the money I have. Having looked at what's available, there are different formats to choose from that the video camera saves the footage to; Hard disk, Mini-DV tape, SDHC card and DVD. Obviously, each format has its pros and cons.

Hard Disks

Pros - Mass storage, quick transfer rate to PC and no moving parts.
Cons - Bulky inside the video camera which ultimately hinders its mobility, Hard disks have also been known to become corrupt after file transfers as well as fragment themselves after a while which is potentially irreversable.

Mini-DV Tape

Pros - Great Video Quality, great for archiving, cheap for new tape.
Cons - Video upload to PCs (unless using firewire) takes a long time and sometimes creates problems with sound and motion (i.e lip-sync) co-ordination. Mini-DV tapes aren't very good with high temperatures. Although this is the case with most electrical mechanisms, as the min-DVs are made of tape, they tend to stretch and lose data quite easily.

DVD

Pros - Very versatile once the footage has been recorded onto the disc. Cheap to buy discs to record on to.
Cons - Can't be used normally whilst on the move as the disc will jump whilst data is being written onto it. Maximum storage of raw data is only just over 4GB.

SDHC

Pros - HD resolution can be compressed quickly and efficiently onto the modified SD card by converting it into AVCHD format. The cards are relatively cheap to buy. The cards are divided into classes depending on how fast data can be written onto them (classes 4 & 6 tend to be the ones used in HD digital video cameras). For a class 4 16GB card, (this will hold 2 hours of HD footage) it will cost roughly around the 20 pound mark. Very quick transfer to computer.
Cons - Trying to find AVCHD video editing software is difficult as this software is relatively new, but nonetheless, both Adobe and Sony are bringing out new versions or plug-ins to cater for this format.

Alongside the different storage formats, there are other things to think about:
- The number of CCDs there are within the camera. The CCD in a camera is the processing unit that filters the light through and processes it into whichever format it is being stored on. The difference in picture quality between a camcorder with one CCD and 3 is huge. When a camcorder has 3xCCD, each colour (out of RGB) is filtered and processed seperately through its own chip which therefore creates a much more vivid picture than the picture produced by a single CCD camcorder. So if possible, a 3xCCD camcorder would be ideal, but they do tend to be rather pricey.
- Zoom. Obviously digital zoom isn't really any factor because when the digital zoom is used, it pixellates the image when the picture is zoomed in. As I am making a surf movie, the ideal choices for these factors would be a relatively large optical zoom in order to film the surfers further out to sea.
- Battery Life - If I am going to be filming in the water by using waterhousing, battery life is a big factor to consider. The longer the battery life, the longer I can remain filming.
- Water Housing - whether or not the camcorder's manufacturer has its own water housing or whether a different company produces a water housing for the particular model.