What is the differences between camcorders?

Mini DV, DV, etc... What are the differences, and which is the best?

the differences are mainly based on picture quality. just remember, for anyone that doesnt work for some production company, miniDV and DV usually mean the same thing. if you really want to get technical, DV is a larger tape, with higher quality, and is usually used by pros along with dvc-pro (dont confuse this with the minidv tapes that say DVC!) and betacam. but dont worry about those.

im gonnna tell you straight off, minidv is the best. this is because of its high quality, and ease of use. "well arent dvds better? you dont even have to transfer it to your computer, you can just watch'em" well, lets say you screwed up and didnt turn off record and you shot at the ground for 10 minutes. thats gonna be just a liiittlle bit boring when you watch it. and then the problem with that is that DVDs are a pain in the a** to transfer to your computer. but lets say you shot on minidv and didnt even make a mistake. well itll take you maybe 15-30 minutes to burn a disk, and itll be higher quality, not to mention you couldve added some effects and titles along the way. and really minidv and dvd are the two main formats out there. ok i guess hard disk counts too, but it doesnt really have the best quality, or ease of use. and then theres your other formats like vhs, hi-8, etc. which you dont see a lot of and wont see any of pretty soon.

so thats that. if your planning on buying, get minidv. 15 minutes out of your life so you can feel good about yourself at accomplishing something is not wasted time. and besides, instant gratification always sucks after the first two seconds. hope this helps! www.camcorderinfo.com is da best answer for u