newbie here... HDV cams and DV cams

[ednarophati]

my company has started to do online news broadcasts and they have thrown me in the middle with ridiculous equipment...
we have an HDV cam, but we shoot in DV mode. we want to get a second camera, but do not want to spend loads of money on another HDV cam. of course, i also want the quality of the image to be similar. since we shoot in DV with an HDV cam, will it be difficult to find a DV cam that fits?

if so, which ones?

thanks.

[Richard_G]

Any of the top line Sony DV cams. There's the Prosumer DCR-VX2100 or the pro DCR-PD170 which will shoot in DV or DVCam mode. The only other difference worth worrying about is that the PD has XLR jacks for external mics, the VX has 3.5mm coaxial jacks. If you use external pro standard mics, you'd probably be best going for the PD, if not, save even more money and go for the VX (I'm biased though, I've got 3 VX series Sonys).

[ednarophati]

some of the DV cams might be out of range as far as price goes... would using miniDV cams help? or would the quality change be too noticeable? we use miniDV tapes in our HDV cam.

thanks.

[Richard_G]

Both of the models I mention use MiniDV tapes, even using a PD series camcorder in DVCam mode, it still records onto MiniDV tapes. I referred to DV as opposed to HDV which is the recording mode and not the tape size.

The quality change would be either very slight or not noticable at all. It may even be better than the HDV cam in DV mode as these camcorders were designed to shoot in that mode in the first place.

[edDV]

some of the DV cams might be out of range as far as price goes... would using miniDV cams help? or would the quality change be too noticeable? we use miniDV tapes in our HDV cam.

thanks.

Tell us your $ budget and shooting conditions* and user viewing standard. We will steer you to a list of cams.

DV Format cams range from $200 ($50 used) to over $50K.


* lighting and action.