Advice for complete novice

[Stuteman]

I would like a Camcorder to record some showjumping competitions. I have borrowed a Samsung Hi8 machine which seems to do the job very well. However when looking to buy one I have become completely confused with the number of differing formats prices etc etc.

Could anyone give me an idiots guide to the pro's and con's?

Many thanks

[AOD]

Take a look at the FAQ at the top of this section, this should be a good starting point.

Then if you have some more specific questions, let us know.

[MarkE19]

8mm & Hi8 are old analogue formats. Hi8 is better quality than the even older 8mm. These camcorders are better in very low light conditions, but will loose a fair amount of quality when making copies.

Mini DV or often just called DV are a generic digital format used by most camcorder makers & therefore there is a very large choice of camcorders. Can be very good quality and this format is used by some TV news programmes etc for outside broadcasts. Most DV camcorders used by consumers are fairly poor at low light recording, but can be easily & cheaply copied onto a PC for editing etc and then copying to DVD-R etc with very little loss of quality.

Micro MV is a Sony only digital format. Many editing programmes can not be used with it. Tapes can be more difficault/expensive to get hold of. Tapes are very small, therefore so are the camcorders.

Digital 8 is another Sony only digital format. Can use Hi8 tapes to record digitally & some models can play back analogue recordings. Tapes are bigger, therefore so are the camcorders.


There are loads more pros & cons on the different formats, but this should get you going.

Mark.