Hard-drive based cameras
by Michael HoffmanThursday, March 16th, 2006
By Christina Timmins, EVP See3
One way to reduce production costs for video that’s destined for the web is to get a hard-drive based camera. Sony is releasing it’s first version of this type in May of this year (DCR-SR100 Handycam). Other cameras, like the JVC Everio series, are already out there.
Organizations looking to outfit their communication departments with a digital still camera might consider spending the extra dollars for a video camera such as this.
A hard-drive based camera not only saves on tape stock costs, but eliminates the need for digitizing. After recording (Sony claims its 30 GB drive can store up to 7 hours) you simply hook up the camera to our computer and download the media.
Pros
Compact, no tapes to buy, carry, label or archive
Long recording time without worrying about swapping tapes
Footage is digital so no need to spend the hours digitizing from tape before editing
You can scan hours of footage by scene and delete unwanted scenes without wearing down tape heads or tape
Cons
The hard-drive based cameras store data using a compression not suitable for broadcast. The current format being captured is MP2. Recording for a long-format program distributed via television or to transfer to film, would not be recommended on this type of camera.
The Sony model, which will cost about $1000.00, already has improved features over cameras of its kind, like Bluetooth microphone, Carl Zeiss lens for image clarity.
Related links
http://www.digitaltechnews.com/news/2006/01/sony_dcrsr100_h.html
http://www.ces-show.com/2006/review/sony_camcorders/sony_dcssr100_hdd_camcorder.html
