Video 8, Hi8 & Digital 8 confusion!

[Baseley09]

hello, just looking to take a newcomer dip into the cam market, looking to pick up a cheap first time unit tho have run into confusion regarding these formats, Wiki isnt helping me much tho i'm a bit tired looking at it at the mo!

Is there any compatibilty between these formats, or are they totally alien from each other despite resemblances? If anyone could give me a few pointers on these formats it would be great, thanks.

[redsox_mark]

Firstly, I don't believe there are any current models with these formats. Until recently Sony still had Digital 8 models, but none show in their current range. Is there a reason you are looking specifically at these formats? Modern formats are:

miniDV and HDV (tape)
Standard def on HDD, DVD, or flash memory (MPEG2)
High def on HDD, DVD, or flash memory (AVCHD)

Video 8 and Hi8 are different analogue formats. They use the same size tapes; though there are different Video 8 and Hi8 ones. You can use Hi8 tapes in a Video8 cam, but not vice-versa. Digital8 uses the same tapes as Hi8, but it is digitially recorded (using the same codec as miniDV).

[senu]

Video 8 and Hi 8 , are analogue recording formats
Hi-8 has a higher resolution
Digital 8 is digital, essentially using the DV codec you get on minDV tapes onto the tape format of Hi-8
The actual tape for all 3 are near identical but for Hi-8 and D8 better grade tape from Video 8 is specified
Hi- 8 camcorders can play video 8 recorded tapes but Video 8 cannot play Hi 8 tapes
Many early Digital 8 camcorders were developed to allow digital recording ( like MiniDV) onto Hi-8 tapes
They could also play Hi 8 and video 8 recordings and infact convert them to digital for firewire to the PC
The better ones are broadly similar to MiniDV apart from size but the last ones were manufactured a few years ago.. and they were mainly Sony only
Because of error correction with digital , you are more likely not to lose video with minor tape problems but all tape based formats suffer from dirty heads, and tape being thrashed by faulty mechanisms
If you are new to camcorder use I would suggest you give these older formats a big miss and wide berth
They would mainly be of interest to anyone who already has a collection of tapes and need the backward compatibility
Even if keeping cost down was a consideration , most aent likely to be new and potential repairs , parts ect might make getting them now an unwise move

The very least you should consider is a MiniDV tape camcorder
In fact even miniDV is not nearly as popular as it used to be what with HDD ans flash card now being the media of choice

Have a read
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8_mm_video_format

[Baseley09]

Excellent guys thanks for the help, I was only looking at these formats as I was browsing ebay for a cheap camera to play around with, im pretty sure that you're right tho and a modern digital recording camera would be easier all round....i was looking at getting a Sony video walkman video8 model as use for a small ntsc screen for retro consoles having a real nerd out there, it carries a video8 recorder so wondered if i could get any use out of it my getting a cheap camera to match!