[SWANY]

I am based in Chile. I am going to Argentina at the weekend, where hopefully I'll be able to buy a PAL video camera (now I am 99% convinced PAL-n and PAL-i are compatible).

In Argentina there isn't much in the way of internet shopping. I have looked at the sites of a couple of manufacturers who sell video cameras in Argentina (Sony & JVC) and they all appear to be American NTSC models.

Heres my question: What use would an NTSC video camera be in the UK? Would I need to invest in new TVS, DVD players to view the finished product? Or would modern technology make this all unecessary?

I know I can get NTSC converted to PAL. To get this done professionally sounds expensive and the computer software available not of the best quality.

I really appreciate the help given by all on this board. I just want to go to Argentina with all of the facts and information to hand.

Thanks,
SWANY.

[vonhosen]

Depends what TV & DVD player you have in the UK. Mine both deal with NTSC without converting it to PAL60 (which is pseudo PAL with 30fps retained). If yours do this then it won't be a problem for you, but it may be if you want to distribute it to friends as there TV/players may have to convert it to PAL60. PAL TVs & players are more likely to play NTSC than vice versa.

If you buy a NTSC camera I would imagine you are going to still use it after you get back (but of course you could try selling it & get as small a loss as possible. You will probably only have a limited amount of footage to get converted then.) If you do decide to keep it you could invest in Canopus Procoder (software). This is an excellent multi standard encoder & format converter.

[MarkE19]

Agree that Canopus Procoder is an excellent software conversion program. It only costs from around £50 and by all accounts (never used it so have no first hand experience) does a very good job.
As already stated, you will be able to play the NTSC footage on most UK TV's and even play an NTSC VHS tape on a UK VCR, but you wont be able to record NTSC to a UK VCR unless it is a very expensive 'multi standards' VCR. You would therefore need to output your footage to DVD to be able to get it off the camcorder (unless you do decide to convert to PAL).

Mark.