Sony Mini DV camcorder

Niggy_G

The £150 price isn't that good as it can be found for less on the net (inc P&P), however for £100 I might be tempted....

N20Y1D

Inactive wrote: »

You would think a company like Sony would provide one blank tape with their product, how frustrating to get home and find that you cannot actually use it.

Have you ever got a video cassette free with a video recorder? dvdr's free with dvd drives? socks free with shoes? food free with fridges?

redmoorphil

Asked about this instore today whilst out shopping in a different town.
Guy was really helpful and checked it all out on his computer for me.
Apparently they were reduced to £100 but the offer ended three days ago
so they are now definitely £149.
Really annoyed, as my local store never marked them down during the offer.
I walk past them every day whilst at lunch and have had my eye on them so would have noticed.
If they had marked them correctly I would have grabbed one!

MVC

I work in video production & can shed some light from my personal perspective on the miniDV/DVD/HDD question.

MiniDV
Pros: Proven, reliable, hard to really damage "everything on tape". Quality can be superb - LOTs of proper telly is produced on almost the exact same tape format.

Cons: Less convenient, some cameras are rubbish - Samsung, cheaper JVC etc.

MiniDVD
Pros: Convenient, discs survive immersion in water better than tape....
Cons: Unreliable, very easy to damage, harder to edit, relatively poor image quality.

HDD
Pro: Convenient
Cons: Bad media makes camera useless, prone to failure, relatively poor image quality. Harder to edit.

YES - MiniDV tape is old and outdated. It's also the very best home camcorder format EVER invented. So much so that it spawned DVCAM (same tape/datarate) which changed the broadcast market beyond belief.

Sony and Canon are often very nice, well built cameras - the cheaper ones do feel cheapish but are still better than the rest.

Most (cheap) JVC & Samsung are the worst built. They are poorly made, often give dire results and aren't worth a light.

Panasonic are sometimes OK but perhaps better avoided. The early models were a joy to behold but when they went down the "how cheap" can we build it route they lost the plot.

I've just consolidated 54 MiniDVD discs and over 100 mixed tapes onto DVD for a client.

The miniDVs are the newest (18 months old max) - the tapes dated from about 1984 to 2005.

We had six problem MiniDVD discs that were corrupted and needed specialist attention from us. One disc was a complete write off. The discs LOOK fine but had data errors.

We found ONE major problem tape - a long play miniDV which turned out to be the last one he used. He had dropped the camera causing the fault.

I'm not saying tapes don't go wrong - they do and I make a living from sorting them out - but the evidence I have seen of MiniDVD discs is that they are not very reliable and can be difficult to manage/edit.

It's a bit odd for a new format BUT I get a lot of calls about consumer HDD cameras - mainly from people stuck trying to edit from them - the general consensus is that they're a bit rubbish - given the rate at which cheap (static) PVRs can die at I'd tend to agree.

Hope this helps.

BTW I'm not a fan of Sony per say - we own a lot of their cameras & a few broadcast decks - but ONLY because they're the either best or only tools for the job - We also have great Canon, Panny, JVC and Samsung kit - I just wanted to give an opinion from my side of the fence.

royalsteve

Inactive wrote: »

Firewire is high speed connection that is similar to USB2, but more suitable for downloading from such items as camcorders etc.

Most decent computers have a Firewire Port/s, mine has two at the front, and 2 at the rear.


Hope this helps.

firewire is a reliable means of connectivity - unlike usb which can be haphazard...usb2 is reported as officially being quicker but real life tests say otherwise

mughal

MVC wrote: »

I work in video production & can shed some light from my personal perspective on the miniDV/DVD/HDD question.

MiniDV
Pros: Proven, reliable, hard to really damage "everything on tape". Quality can be superb - LOTs of proper telly is produced on almost the exact same tape format.

Cons: Less convenient, some cameras are rubbish - Samsung, cheaper JVC etc.

MiniDVD
Pros: Convenient, discs survive immersion in water better than tape....
Cons: Unreliable, very easy to damage, harder to edit, relatively poor image quality.

HDD
Pro: Convenient
Cons: Bad media makes camera useless, prone to failure, relatively poor image quality. Harder to edit.

YES - MiniDV tape is old and outdated. It's also the very best home camcorder format EVER invented. So much so that it spawned DVCAM (same tape/datarate) which changed the broadcast market beyond belief.

Sony and Canon are often very nice, well built cameras - the cheaper ones do feel cheapish but are still better than the rest.

Most (cheap) JVC & Samsung are the worst built. They are poorly made, often give dire results and aren't worth a light.

Panasonic are sometimes OK but perhaps better avoided. The early models were a joy to behold but when they went down the "how cheap" can we build it route they lost the plot.

I've just consolidated 54 MiniDVD discs and over 100 mixed tapes onto DVD for a client.

The miniDVs are the newest (18 months old max) - the tapes dated from about 1984 to 2005.

We had six problem MiniDVD discs that were corrupted and needed specialist attention from us. One disc was a complete write off. The discs LOOK fine but had data errors.

We found ONE major problem tape - a long play miniDV which turned out to be the last one he used. He had dropped the camera causing the fault.

I'm not saying tapes don't go wrong - they do and I make a living from sorting them out - but the evidence I have seen of MiniDVD discs is that they are not very reliable and can be difficult to manage/edit.

It's a bit odd for a new format BUT I get a lot of calls about consumer HDD cameras - mainly from people stuck trying to edit from them - the general consensus is that they're a bit rubbish - given the rate at which cheap (static) PVRs can die at I'd tend to agree.

Hope this helps.

BTW I'm not a fan of Sony per say - we own a lot of their cameras & a few broadcast decks - but ONLY because they're the either best or only tools for the job - We also have great Canon, Panny, JVC and Samsung kit - I just wanted to give an opinion from my side of the fence.

Thanx for the info.
I got Sony 203 DVD camcorder, i put dvd and in VRmode instead of Video mode, now i am not able to finalize the DVD is there any way to get my pictures on to the computer?? and can i do something to get the dvd finalized.

thanx for any help

Nealmason1986

I dunno quite how a DVD recorder works but if u have nay editing software like Adobe Premier or Final cut (for the Mac) then you can capture by firewire. Basically the software captures as the dvd plays. So as long as the footage u have on you camcorder can be viewed on the unit itself then there is no reason wy it should be captures using a computer software

energy80s

Having been a professional cameraman for over 20 years, I agree with the poster above about miniDV being the best quality standard definition domestic video format currently available. For HD, go for a hard disc system. Avoid the DVD and flashcard cameras for anything other than simple point and shoot filming ... they are glorified mobile phone cams!

zebedee79

Well, having read the above thread and given that we have a 2-week old daughter we purchased one of these at the weekend from Chesterfield (they did have a display model left should anyone else be in the area).

Previously looking at HD version, but the price of this is much more palatable.

Thanks to OP and to those who provided info on formats above.

MVC

mughal wrote: »

Thanx for the info.
I got Sony 203 DVD camcorder, i put dvd and in VRmode instead of Video mode, now i am not able to finalize the DVD is there any way to get my pictures on to the computer?? and can i do something to get the dvd finalized.

thanx for any help

What type of disc +R, -R, +RW or -RW?

Note: +RW discs don't need finalising - so the option isn't available.