Category — Dvd Camcorders

The invention of the camcorder has decreased the use of still photographs. When you take a trip, instead of a disposable 35mm camera, you can take digital camcorder. No running to Wal-Mart or what have you to develop pictures. You already have the finished product in the palm of your hand with a miniDV tape or DVD disc.

If I went to Paris, I would love to film the atmosphere with a camcorder. You keep an auditory and visual sensory memory with a camcorder. And now with a dvd camcorder, a consumer can record entire chapters of memories instead of creating a photo album. You could even keep a travel video journal. And with a camcorder, you can still capture digital stills if you prefer.

Still photography is still used. I love using a manual 35mm when I have a specific project in mind. There are still plenty of still photographers working today. And movie sets still need promotional photographs etc. It seems that the still camera has just become less popular with the travel & family user. It’s more appealing to the consumer to use a camcorder and capture the entire experience instead of just snapshots. And think of all the beautiful art photography, it’s not going away just because of the widespread use of camcorders. People will continue to work in the format of their choices. There’s just tons of choices today.

I’ve been researching how dvd camcorders compare to DV. To my surprise, I found that editing the footage from dvd cams is very frustrating. The optimal editing procedure is to do everything in camera! Otherwise, you must use Adobe Premiere Elements or Sony Vegas DVD specific editing software. Apparently, this is something most people do not know when they buy a dvd camcorder. If you were thinking that you would be able edit footage right out of the box with a dvd camcorder, this may prove to be very difficult. So any miniDV camcorder has an advantage over a Sony Handycam DCR-DVD201 Camcorder.

Jake Ludington, a media expert who answers tech questions, figured out how to manipulate the dvd camcorder footage. The biggest problem is uploading the dvd footage content and transferring it to a manageable editing format. All of his instructions sound extremely complicated and doesn’t make me want to run out and buy a dvd camcorder.

I agree with his assessment of the dvd dilemma.
“I like the idea of DVD camcorders. No hard drive, theoretically affordable media, considering full-sized DVDs cost less than fifty cents each in most cases. The reality is a series of frustrations for anyone who wants to edit movies after shooting. I have some experience with Sony’s Handycam DVD7, which is an entry level unit, but representative of the experience for all DVD camcorders. The dirty secret of DVD camcorders is they aren’t designed for editing on a PC. You are expected to record to disk, edit on the camera, finalize your project on the camera and at best make copies of the DVD for sharing with other people. If you are more familiar with the process of realtime video capture over FireWire available via a more traditional DV cam, this is especially frustrating. None of the Handycam DVD models include FireWire (or as Sony calls it, iLINK).”

This issue can be navigated, but I feel like I’d rather stick to buying dv tapes, even though DVD discs are less expensive. I’d rather have less hassle on the post-production end. Still, dvd camcorders are a great deal if you want to record family memories and don’t care to edit very much after the fact. They are remain a viable product on the market despite these technical issues.

There are these videos on You Tube of people who decide to take a picture of themselves everyday with a camcorder or webcam. This parody is my personal favorite.

If you want to take the idea further, you could do a daily video journal and capture it on disc. With a panasonic vdr m50 digital camcorder, you can record a dvd track entry everyday. Then, when you fill a disc up, you can just import it onto your computer. It’s just like a when you fill up a paper journal and file it away. And with a dvd camcorder, you are able to have your footage already in MPEG-4 format. Then, uploading it to YouTube or Revver.com is a snap.

These daily videos are most likely only entertaining to the filmmaker. But it is a way to track one’s progress and develop camcorder skills. I think it would be great to have a writer or even filmmaker to track their daily progress on whatever project they are working on. I know the video diary on the Magnolia dvd was pretty self-indulging of PT Anderson. Still, it was fascinating to see what was happening from his own POV on a long-term basis.

The camcorder allows you capture your personal behavior without a huge film crew following you around real world style. And even on the “Real World”, they have the confessional booth where the roommates essentially film themselves with a camcorder. I always found the confession tapes to be full of the best parts in the early years of the show. Lately, the confession segments seem overly fabricated. It’s more like they are being interviewed instead of speaking aloud to themselves.

The Sundance Film Festival started officially today. It’s becoming one of the premiere American film festivals. Created by Robert Redford, along with his Sundance filmmakers program, these next few days are an exciting time for the film & video community. They even broadcast the closing ceremony & festival dailies on the Sundance channel.

I bet the competitors get together and compare dv camcorders & tech secrets. It would be a great peer learning environment. You can only gather so much information on the internet. I would love to hear first hand from a fellow filmmaker about the merits of each type of camcorder. For instance, do serious filmmakers even consider using dvd camcorders like a Sony Handycam DCR-DVD505 DVD Camcorder? Or if you see a film shot with DV that you really enjoyed, the filmmaker is right there to pick their brain!

Camcorder review sites are still very extensive. And they do include forums and message boards. I wonder if the Sundance website has a message board for contestants. Then, that would be the perfect online forum to ask filmmakers questions about their camera choices and purchases. All without having to fly to Utah. Still, it would be fun to be inside the scene.

I’ve noticed that more movies have implemented video contests. I just heard about this campaign for Freedom Writers with Hilary Swank. The film looks like a totally rip off of Stand and Deliver. Maybe people just need to be uplifted at the movies from time (not me tho). But the video contest is really just an open invite for “stories” told with video cameras and posted on YouTube. It’s very easy to take a
Samsung SC-DC164 DVD Camcorder and let your story “be heard” as they say in the trailer. And of course, it’s all linked in with YouTube. Very clever cross promotion by Paramount. And the theme song, “A Dream”, samples Martin Luther King’s famous speech. All just in time for MLK day. The film hopes to inspire people to express themselves, and in the case of this contest, with digital video.

Marketing campaigns are now becoming very interactive. Most movies and tv shows have Myspace pages. And now with camcorders being so accessible, they have video competitions like this one. They also have online polls and other inventive promotional schemes.

I wonder what video-related contests they will come up with next. Different movies would require a new and creative angle. I bet the it would be difficult to have a video contest to promote historical dramas or something. I mean, what would they do? Ask you to shoot your own video of a battle scene from Letters from Iwo Jima or something? Very doubtful that Clint Eastwood would condone that sort of thing.

Nevertheless, videos can be a great tool for the right subject material.