Monday, December 26, 2011
Sony PDX Camcorder DVCAM Manual
The Sony PDX- 0 camcorder provided by the School of Journalism can record using either mini-DV or DVCAM tapes. Both utilize the “DV” digital video format which uses a 5: compression and is capable of being transferred over firewire cables and ports. Mini-DV is considered a “consumer” or at best “pro- sumer” format made by Sony while DVCAM is Sony’s professional version of the DV format. Panasonic’s DVC-Pro 5 format (not available at the SJMC but widely used in newsrooms,) uses the same method of digitally encoding information, but DVC-Pro tape is a different size and is not playable on mini-DV or DVCAM equipment. Most DVC-Pro decks are able to play Mini-DV or DVCAM tapes with a cassette adaptor.
A number of other digital tape formats exist and more will soon appear. They include: Digital Betacam, Beta SX, DVC-Pro 50 and HDV. As of this writing, many news facilities still use the reliable analog Beta-SP format. (Note: do not confuse tape formats with “Beta” in the name with “Betamax” which was an early alternative to VHS tape)
While analog and digital video devices both use tape, it is used in very different ways. For digital video and audio, tape just happens to be one of many options for storing data. Tape is not actually necessary for recording digital video or audio. New drive devices are reaching the market that eliminate the use of tape entirely by recording to hard drives or optical media attached to the camera. When DV tape is used, the digital data will generally be transferred from tape to computer drives in order to manipulate and edit recorded material.
A great deal could be said in comparing various analog and digital tape formats, but that is beyond the scope of this document. In short, the variety of formats in use reflect different needs and uses. Mini-DV cameras are small, portable and relatively inexpensive. Mini-DV is a good format on which to learn the craft of shooting video, and in the hands of the right person with the right mini-DV equipment, images and sound can be quite beautiful. DVCAM can also be quite small but is typically shot with larger, more expensive cameras. In either case, the 5-to- compression that facilitates the relatively.
