any camcorders use USB 2.0 yet? and USB 2.0 vs Firewire?

[pressthe6]

looking at the sony camcorders (740; 25; etc) but don't see anything that has a USB 2.0 connection. any ideas?

[normano]

USB 2.0 and Firewire a very similar in speed and that is what you need in moving video and audio data.
I dont know of any DV USB2.0 cameras.

[Jester700]

Firewire has pretty much become the standard, and USB2.0 doesn't offer much in the way of advantages, so I don't expect to see many.

[Thorn]

While USB 2.0 is faster than firewire (by about 10Mbps) that's irrelevant because DV formatted video takes about 2/3 of the bandwidth in firewire. (Firewire 2 is supposed to be something like 2.6Gbps which might allow an uncompressed real-time video feed). Without a new standard for digital video, there's no need for a new connector.

The main reason you won't see USB 2.0 camcorders for a while is that firewire is the established standard for video devices on PCs, Macs, and DV decks. And firewire seems to be tied closely to DV. USB is more used for things like peripherals (maybe still cameras, scanners, etc). If the standard is pushed enough, though, devices will appear. The main thing that would facilitate this is that most new PCs will have a usb 2.0 port.

I could be wrong, but I don't see the the USB 2.0 as gaining market share of digital video devices very soon.

If you're worried about having usb 2.0 already but no firewire, just bite the bullet and buy a $20 firewire card. They work fine.

[JHebert]

The theoretical difference in speed of USB 2 (480Mbs) vs Firewire (400Mbs) doesn't translate into real world use, and in fact several comparisons show Firewire with the advantage in sustained data transfer rates in high bandwidth tests using hard drives. Also the previous poster said DV only uses about 25Mbs so the bus is not a bottleneck.
Firewire also has several advantages well suited for digital video and multimedia use in general, including isochronous transfer (ontime delivery) as well as peer-to-peer mode between Firewire devices (ie cam<>deck) where USB 2 requires a PC to act as intermediary for all devices. USB 2 is working on the peer-to-peer problem for a future version I think called "USB on the Go" or something like that. However its basically playing catch-up to Firewire which always had this capability. Firewire has already developed 1394b which will deliver from 800Mbs to 2.6Gbs speeds. The big advantage of USB is that it came from Intel, and Intel can basically force adoption of its standard by building it into the mobo chipset, whereas Firewire is still mainly an add-on feature. So USB ends up cheaper and more widespread, despite inferior technology.
I wouldn't expect USB to make much inroad in DV as it exists today, but as cams based on DVD and MPEG become more widespread I would expect USB 2 to become more common as a cam interface.