[DM-MUG] Digital Video Camera Recommendations

[Matt W]

Sony makes some strange business decisions (their recent iPod 
competitor comes to mind).

Mini-DVD (as opposed to the tape format MiniDV) discs cost about half 
as much as MiniDV and consequently hold about half the video. According 
to Sony, "Now you can record directly onto 3-inch DVD-R and DVD-RW at 
resolutions comparable to MiniDV." Yes, but at only 20 minutes per disc 
vs. 60 for MiniDV tapes.

When researching the DVD camcorder, I looked at Sony's high-end 
DCR-DVD301 specs online. While I cannot recommend spec shopping online 
to make a final decision for anything that one is not already familiar 
with, I see some obvious omissions for a Mac user right away.  Sony 
missed FireWire completely. USB2 is all the DVD cam uses. Adequate? I 
think not. USB2 doesn't work with iMovie. Even USB2 isn't guaranteed to 
work with USB2; reference the last line on the product page: "Not all 
products with a USB 2.0 connector may communicate with each other due 
to chipset variations." Not only that, but there is no mention of Mac 
OS anywhere in the Sony DVD camcorder specs page. It lists Windows 
prominently. To add insult to injury, the Sony DVD camcorder itself is 
about 2/3 more costly than a competing tape camera.

You make the call.

Matthew

On Oct 8, 2004, at 9:55 AM, Jon Engelhardt wrote:

> Thanks Matt for your thoughts re: digital cam corders.  I stopped at 
> Best Buy two days ago and actually had a young lady that was an expert 
> on the subject, she's a graphic arts major and loves Mac's---how 
> fortunate was I?  I'm not quite sure as to whether I should only look 
> at the mini DVD's or the tape's, any ideas?  She also mentioned that 
> Sony's at times don't work as well with the OS 10 platform as other 
> brands, that surprised me a little as they do sell both products.  I'm 
> going to keep looking and hopefully within a few weeks I'll make an 
> informed decision.
>
> Thanks to everyone for their ideas.
>
> Jon Engelhardt
> On Oct 7, 2004, at 11:46 PM, Matt W wrote: