44 MA XIMUMPC JANUARY 2006
TAPE-BASED MEDIA
Going digital doesn’t necessarily mean ridding
yourself of tape. In fact, the single most common
DV-cam format, MiniDV, still relies on the stuff.
Tape’s drawbacks are numerous: Unlike all the
other recording media we’ll discuss, for example,
tape is not a random-access medium. This
makes it diffi cult to locate specifi c scenes without
spending a lot of time fast-for-
warding and rewinding. Copying
a tape’s contents to your PC’s
hard drive for editing is also a
slow process. And no matter how
many spare cassettes you carry,
you’ll always run out at the most
inopportune moment.
On the upside, tape delivers
the highest quality because the
video undergoes the least amount
of compression during capture.
Perhaps contra-intuitively, tape
offers the easiest method of
importing video into a PC-based
editing package. The cassettes
are cost-effective, too: Expect to
pay about $15 for a two-pack,
with each capable of recording up
to 60 minutes of material.BUYERS GUIDE
IMAGE SENSOR
A DV cam’s image sensor—typically a charge-
coupled device (CCD)—absorbs light entering
the camera through its lens and converts it
into electrical charges. The larger the CCD,
the more sensitive it is to light and the more
capable it is of capturing image detail. Most
consumer models have a single CCD, while
high-end cameras boast three (one each for
red, green, and blue light). We recommend an
image sensor that’s at least 1/3-inch across
for best performance. You want one that’s
capable of at least 690,000-pixel (effec-
tive) video resolution and
2 megapixels of still-image
resolution.
Playing your videos
back on a widescreen TV?
Look for models that can
record in either 4:3 or 16:9
aspect ratios. And because
it’s unlikely you’ll always be
shooting outdoors in bright
light, look for a DV cam with
a low minimum illumination
requirement (a lux, or can-
dlepower, rating in the one to
three range). The lower the
number, the better the cam-
era will perform indoors and
in low-light conditions.OTHER RECORDING MEDIA
Some DV-cams record directly to 3-inch
DVDs, which cost about $6 each for
DVD-RAM or $8 a piece for DVD-R. You
can record up to 30 minutes of video
on either. DVD-RAM can be erased
and reused as many as 100 times; but
the discs are less universally compat-
ible with DVD drives and players thanDVD+R and DVD-R.
There are also new DV cams that
record directly to internal hard disks.
Because the cameras are entirely self-
contained, you don’t need to carry any
extra tapes or accessories. A 30GB
drive can hold about seven hours of
DVD-quality video in MPEG-2 format.
Of course, when the drive is full, you’llneed to delete (or at least archive) mate-
rial in order to record more.
Some DV-cams use Flash memory,
which—unlike any of the previously dis-
cussed media—is nearly impervious to
skipping. The downside is its extremely
limited capacity. One gigabyte of fl ash
memory is capable of recording just 22
minutes of high-quality video.LENS QUALITY
Without a good lens, the best sensor in the world won’t mean
a darn. Digital zoom has improved considerably, but silicon
is no substitute for quality optics: Camcorders in this price
range should sport at least 10x optical zoom. Image stabiliza-
tion is another important feature; here again, optical is better
than electronic because the latter manipulates the image being
recorded, which can result in visible aliasing in your fi nal video.
Auto-focus technology has also improved by leaps and
bounds, but some instances demand manual override, a fea-
ture that all too few DV cams sport.PORTS AND CONNECTORS
FireWire (IEEE-1394) is the fastest means of transferring
video to your PC; USB 2.0 is the next best thing. Better
cameras support both. Models that can perform analog-
to-digital conversion are handy: They can digitize video
from a VCR or analog camcorder and transfer it to your
PC in real time.
Most DV cams also function as digital still cameras, stor-
ing images to fl ash memory. Some models can print stills
directly to a printer (with PictBridge being the most common
cross-brand standard).The five most important features you should
consider before whipping out your plasticTHE
REVOLUTION
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