When Camcorders Go Tapeless

MiniDV isn't the only game in town for tapeless camcorders. A growing number of these devices use other recording media, and the Duo tackle those in a category Angela calls "totally tapeless."

The most popular of these camcorders is undoubtedly the kind that records directly to MiniDVD. Those discs cost around $2.50 and hold about 30 minutes of video. But there are two other kinds: some record on hard drives, and some on memory chips--no moving parts at all, except for the lens zooming and focusing.

One big advantage of these formats, says Angela, comes at playback time. With tape, you have to forward and reverse to get to the footage you want. With tapeless recordings, you get random access--the ability to jump to any scene in a hurry. And you can often do that from a menu of thumbnails that the camera generates automatically.

The DVD camcorders are slightly bulkier than their MiniDV cousins, though that's not a major consideration compared to the tangled mess the Duo discovered when it came time to ponder formats. There are no fewer than three common DVD-camera formats: DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM. And any given format may or may not play on the DVD players and computers you own.

The R disks are write-once (that is, you can't erase them), while the RW (read/write) and RAM disks are rewriteable. On those, you can delete scenes and regain the space, though not simply--which, says Angela, is actually a benefit, as you won't accidentally blow away footage you really wanted. But there are other issues when it comes to compatibility, retorts Steve: not only are there differences in the disks, there are differences in what you can do with them depending on what mode you record them in, a ridiculous situation.

Thanks to that random access, you can edit RW disks if you record them in the right mode, in effect creating a playlist of scenes that you can play back. And you can do things like splitting a clip in half. But between peering at the little screen and pressing lots of little buttons, say the Duo, it's much simpler to fire up your computer and do your edits there.

But even editing on your computer can be fraught with peril when these things are in play, it turns out. Because of the MPEG-2 format they use, DVD files are inherently harder to edit than MiniDV files. There are programs that can handle it, but not a lot of them. If you're thinking about doing a lot of editing--or even a little, says Steve--MiniDV is a better choice.

Switching formats, the Duo look at a hard-disk-based camcorder from JVC: the Everio GZ-MC200, which records to a removable hard drive that fits into a CompactFlash adapter.

But the Everio also uses the same MPEG-2 format as DVD, so the editing situation reduces to the previous problem. JVC does provide the appropriate software, but it's a fairly obscure package. (And remember, you're going to have to store these files on a computer somewhere while you figure it out, because when the hard disk fills up, it's way too expensive to stick on a shelf somewhere like you would a DVD or tape.) As for performance, the Duo missed having an internal viewfinder and noted that the Everio video itself had a distinctly reddish tint.

Finally, the Duo look at a camcorder that shoots directly onto SD memory cards--the kind you usually see in digital cameras. The Sanyo Xacti VPC-C4 is tiny, it can take 4-megapixel stills, and it's got image stabilization, all definitely appealing features. But it's got problems of its own. The biggest, says Angela, is its tiny screen: it's extremely hard to see in sunlight, and with no internal viewfinder you'll simply have to make do. She also found the camera to be remarkably slow to focus and slow to get its exposure right. The Xacti uses yet another format, MPEG-4, which you'll be seeing more of as time goes by. The Duo weren't greatly impressed with the quality of the video, which showed some lens flare--a surprise, since no other camera in their testing exhibited that particular gremlin.

Like everything else in the tech world, these devices are likely to get better and cheaper. For now, say the Duo, there's no compelling reason to be a pioneer with these formats.