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Underwater VideographyDiscuss Underwater Videography from taking videos to video equipment , sell your old gear, see what your favourite camera manufacturers are coming out with or just find something fascinating to view.
Please note: The last reply in this thread was more than 19 month(s) ago.
I have decided to purchase Sony's HDR-HC7. What HD tape would you recommend ? I think the unit will come with a memory stick, not sure if that would need to be upgraded or not.
I have been making television documentaries and educational videos for more than 30 years and I buy about a thousand blank tapes a year, so I have a bit of knowledge in this area. The answer is, there is virtually no difference between the major brands. In fact, many of them are made by the very same suppliers, just with different branding. Sony, Fuji, Maxell, Panasonic...it doesn't really matter. I would stay away from low-grade store brands because the cassettes tend to be poorly made and may fail.
Price becomes the primary reason to make a choice.
Thanks MD – I wasn’t sure about it, I did an internet search for mini HD cassettes and was blown away by the selections. The only thing I could see was a difference was the obvious, that being tape size in terms of minutes. I’ll probably head of to Best Buys today and pick up a few. Thanks again !
As for the memory stick issue, I can't really speak to it directly because I haven't researched you particular camera choice. However, I will say that most cameras use a video compression logarithm, such as MPEG, to store video on a memory stick, yet they record uncompressed video on the tape. The upshot of that is, far more information is recorded on the tape. It doesn't matter a whole lot if you're just going to plug the unit into your tv and watch the raw video. But, if you intend to take the video into editing and produce a nicely finished show, the reduced information contained in the original recording will degrade the quality of the final product.
In the professional broadcasting arena, compressed field recording is regarded as sub-standard and many broadcast outlets won't even accept it. As the compression logarithms improve, this attitude is going to change. But, we're not there yet.
I thought the video is fully recorded on the tape and the memory stick is for still shots that can be captured as you video. This isn’t anywhere close to my profession – so I clearly don’t have a clue. But I am sure it will suffice for my purposes :-)
You might be correct about the memory stick. As I said, I haven't researched your particular camera. Some video cameras do use memory cards to record video. If yours records stills on the card and video on the tape, that's a nice combo for your use.
On another note, earlier you mentioned tape lengths in terms of run time. I would suggest that for your video recording, you will be best served by shorter tapes. That's because they are able to squeeze longer tapes into the same size cassette by using thinner tape. The little rubber pinch rollers that move the tape through your camera can do a better job of grabbing thicker tape. In the professional world we use tapes that only run about 30 minutes, although increasingly the 64 minute cassettes are being used. I would stay away from the 2 hour tapes for this reason.
Also, if your camera has the option of different recording speeds, always use the speed that eats up your tape the fastest. The faster that tape spins across the recording head, the more information is recorded. Tape is cheap, but that high quality shot of the 600 pound Goliath Grouper swallowing the reef shark (yes I saw this happen, and no I didn't have a camera) is priceless.
I dive a HDR-HC1 which uses standard 60min mini-DV tapes whether recording in SD or HD mode. I always record them in HD mode. After several dive trips I have only had one dropout when ripping back to the PC. And that was with a standard Sony mini-DV tape. The only time I bought a higher grade tape for HD recording was for my wedding I think I normally buy a Panasonic tape which has a black and gold wrapper and is a notch up from the basic.
A quick look at the HC7 specs shows it uses standard mini-DV tapes to record the SD and HD video. And the camera shoots 6.1MP stills (in the still picture mode) and lower resolution raw frame stills (in video mode) to the Memory Stick PRO Duo card.
I own two 1GB Memory Sticks. I take a lot of stills when there's nothing to video. Whenever possible I flip to still mode to take those pictures [in higher rez] however sometimes I just snap them on the fly in video mode. So the majority of the stills are at the higher resolution. If you find yourself doing the same thing, then you're going to want at least one big Memory Stick. I just bring two because they're small and halfway through the trip I switch to the other (whether needed or not). I think I typically come back with abut 200-400 still pictures. Some are suprisingly good even without the flash.
One more thing about stills. Sometimes I connect the camera straight to the projector and watch the raw footage in HD. When people come over, they will inevitably see a scene and ask for an image. I just press the photo button on the remote (which captures the frame to the Memory Stick). If you watch a few tapes with fellow divers, be prepared to rip even more still photos off the Memory Stick after a session like that.
ps. Typically if a product is shipped with a memory stick it is way too small for normal use. I would recommend getting something closer to the 1GB size (or bigger) since they're so small and cheap nowadays.
[quote=sinistar] And that was with a standard Sony mini-DV tape. The only time I bought a higher grade tape for HD recording was for my wedding I think I normally buy a Panasonic tape which has a black and gold wrapper and is a notch up from the basic.
quote]
This is very true. You can use a standard mini-DV tape. There are differences with the HD tape, but you have to dig down into arcane engineering details to find them. For all but the most demanding circumstances, there is no practical difference.
I've read on other video forums that staying with one mfr. is recommended. I mostly shoot the blue packaged Sony DVC Premium tapes in my HC1. Occasionally I buy the white packaged Sony HDV tapes on sale - they're 2 mins. longer. I've never seen a dropout.
Actually, staying with one manufacturer is indeed preferred... or at least was. Why... because some tape manufacturers used different lubricants in their tapes, and mixing different lubricants can cause heads to become sticky. Specifically I was warned away from mixing Sony and Panasonic tapes.
As for the compression on still images vs video on the HC-7, my understanding is that the HDV video footage is stored on tape using MPEG-2 compression to allow the same amount of footage to be stored on the tape as opposed to the uncompressed mini-DV footage of standard definition cameras. With the HC7 the still images captured as you film video are of lesser resolution than the still images captured when you are not filming.
I think I normally buy a Panasonic tape which has a black and gold wrapper and is a notch up from the basic.
Linear Mode
