Tape is dead
April 15, 2010 by admin
Filed under A video pro's take
When was the last time you played an 8-track? Record? Shoot video with a VHS camcorder? Been awhile, right?
Tape is dead for recording video with a camera. The last consumer high def format- HDV- is quickly being replaced by cameras that shoot on internal hard drives, memory cards or other forms of storage.
Buying a video camera can almost be like buying a card. Different people look for different things. (Cue Ford vs. Chevy.) One of the factors you need to consider is how your camera stores the video it shoots.
On-board hard drives can offer flexibility, but provides several issues. Dropping a HD-based camera at any point can cause serious problems. You can ruin the unit very quickly. It also has a upper limit of what you can record before you have to hook it up to a computer to offload.
Look for a camera that can record to a SD card like the Canon Vixia MF M300 or the Panasonic HDC-HS250. The Panny has the advantage of shooting to the on-board hard drive or a SD/SDHC card.
The next issue? Backing up all that data and keeping up with it. One of the worst things in the world can be that feeling when you realized you dumped that great hunt by emptying the trash on your computer. Ouch.
