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DV camera: To buy in US or not?

  • 08-12-2004 5:39am
    #1
    milltown
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,616 ✭✭✭


    I'm in the states at the mo and looking into buying a digital video camera to capture the memories of my new(ish) son. Spoke to a guy in Fry's the other day who told me that all their cams are NTSC, not even the high end ones support PAL. Not that I'm looking at the high end anyway, decent looking 1Mp cams here for under $300 are what I'm interested in.

    What I want to know is; I'm guessing most of my editing and authoring will be done on the PC (I'll need a video capture card, right?) so will having an NTSC only camera be much of a hinderance in reality? Or do capture cards come in specific flavours too? While it might be nice now and then to just connect the camera to the telly straight after filming, I can't see that being it's main use. Or am I wrong?

    And while I'm here, does $300 seem a good price, talking Sony or Panasonic for that. I hadn't thought about a camera before I came over so I have no idea what price thay are at home. Last time I looked at a video camera 8mm tapes were the poodles noodles.

    All advice and comments welcomed, thanks.


Comments

  • #2
    davmigil
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 593 ✭✭✭davmigil


    For a DV camera you just need a firewire port on your PC, which strictly speaking isn't a capture card (the footage is already in digital format so doesn't need any conversion). If you don't have one you can get a cheap PCI OHCI firewire card. The footage will remain in NTSC format however (which IMHO is inferior to PAL). I guess, depending on the software, you can output it in PAL format, but the quality won't be any better!

    Check prices on www.dabs.com www.komplett.ie etc and see what the saving would be against the US. Beware also that you may be liable, depending on your circumstances, to pay duty when bringing it back to Ireland.

    Unless the recharger is dual voltage selectable, you will need an adaptor to get 220V instead of 115V or whatever USA is.

    Finallly, if you want to archive edited footage back to tape you will need a DV cam which has DV-in as well as out (dearer in Europe as extra tax on recording equipment :rolleyes: ), doesn't matter if you just want to burn footage to CD/DVD.

    All the best,

    Dave


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