The advent of solid state cameras has certainly ushered in a new era of efficient\u00a0workflow but the price tag can sometimes be off-putting for those just getting into filming yet\u00a0a lot of these people would rather have a solid state consumer camera than an HDV professional camera. \u00a0That’s a terrible idea. \u00a0Here’s why.<\/p>\n
HDV is digital\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The number 1 misconception our customers have about tape cameras and miniDV\/ HDV in particular is that they are somehow not digital. This is not true yet society generally associates tape with analog so we’re often met with disbelief when we try to explain that HDV is indeed a digital medium.<\/p>\n HDV\/ MiniDV can capture scene breaks and requires less post production work after import<\/strong><\/p>\n Various editing programs natively identify scene breaks in an imported file and give you options to break your file into scenes or separate files.<\/p>\n HDV\u00a0tapes are imported as files<\/strong><\/p>\n Another frequent cause of confusion is how tapes are imported. \u00a0When you import your HDV tape you end up with a file just like you do when you import from a memory card. \u00a0Effectively the tape is your disc or memory card. \u00a0It just happens to store it’s data on actual tape. \u00a0Once imported you can move that file from drive to drive just like you would any other imported footage.<\/p>\n Professional cameras offer features consumer cameras lack<\/strong><\/p>\n Buying a consumer grade solid state\u00a0camera (generally AVCHD) just to avoid HDV is a horrible idea. \u00a0Consumer cameras lack higher end audio, have smaller image sensors, low quality lenses, few control settings and generally record with more visible compression artifacts than their professional\/ semi-professional counterparts.<\/p>\n Your budget will get you a lot more HDV camera than Solid State<\/strong><\/p>\n As of today’s writing we charge $949.99 for a Canon XH-A1, arguably the best all around prosumer HDV camera made. \u00a0It’s an easy to use camera for the beginner, with the necessary capabilities for the seasoned pro, has an amazing lens and rock solid reliability. \u00a0If we compare that to our most popular AVCHD camcorder, the Panasonic HMC150 ($1699 as of today’s writing) you’re looking at a price difference of $750 for the privilege of shooting to a card instead of a tape.<\/p>\n But\u00a0it’s not all roses and butterflies<\/strong><\/p>\n There are a few downsides to HDV. \u00a0Workflow is admittedly more time consuming. \u00a0Instead of inserting a memory card into your computer and dragging a file over you need to import the tape in real time through the camera or a transfer deck. \u00a0This consists of connecting the camera to your computer and essentially playing it back as your computer captures it. \u00a0It’s hardly quick.<\/p>\n HDV also shoots in 1440×1080 versus 1920×1080. \u00a0Who will notice this? \u00a0Likely no one but it’s something to keep in mind.<\/p>\n HDV footage generally has more visible compression artifacts than the common solid state AVCHD pro cameras.<\/p>\n Is it for me?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n It depends. \u00a0If you’re just getting into filming and budget is a big factor then yes. \u00a0Plenty of amazing things have been\u00a0shot on HDV cameras and even today they continue to make up about 40% of our business. \u00a0They are still hugely popular. \u00a0If you’re looking for the latest and the greatest however or workflow efficiency is a big factor to you then a solid state camera likely is the better choice.<\/p>\n No matter what you choose we hope you’ll buy it from us!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The advent of solid state cameras has certainly ushered in a new era of efficient workflow but the price tag can sometimes be off-putting for those just getting into filming yet a lot of these people would rather have a solid state consumer camera than an HDV professional camera. That’s a terrible idea. Here’s why.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1411,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-with-thumbnail","post-with-thumbnail-icon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monkeedeals.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monkeedeals.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monkeedeals.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monkeedeals.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monkeedeals.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1410"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/monkeedeals.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1412,"href":"https:\/\/monkeedeals.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410\/revisions\/1412"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monkeedeals.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monkeedeals.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monkeedeals.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monkeedeals.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}