Tape vs HDD for Underwater Discussion

[diversteve]

It's interesting how in the last couple of years, the limiting factor has gone from being tape time to battery time. My personal opinion is that my next camcorder will be one with an SSD option.

Since from my end-user, non-pro perspective 24MBPS AVCHD is as good as HDV. Nice thing about SSD is that (I believe) the transfer speed is even faster than HDD via USB since (speaking of Sony Memory Core Duo products) they have a Cardbus adapter for the Core Duo card - I have one used to transfer stills now but it would work for video also. So video clips show up as a drive in Explorer that can be quickly moved to the computer's storage for editing/archiving. Anybody who's editing video likely has 100's of GB's of storage anyway. My laptop has a bigger drive than I could fill in a week of shooting AVCHD footage and that's all I need.

I'd like to see the price come down on the Memory Core Duo cards also though before I switch from tape. Being Sony proprietary technology they're not as cheap as SDHC currently - not as fast either afaik.

I voted HDD but really only because there wasn't a solid state media option. If the manufacturers would bump up the internal memory sizing, I'd be buying one next. As it is, the 120GB HDD models are appealing, I have that sized drive on my laptop so could store a lot of video during a week of shooting.

One other point for non-tape based formats is that I read a recent post from someone who talked about random access editing and deleting segments between dives using the file menu on his camcorder. Can't do that with tape unless you leave enough "blue" between segments to see during a fast review and do it sequentially. Might as well just change tapes also as it's hard to fill in later when the camera is back in the housing. I could really see shooting in short intervals and allowing the camera to make segments out of the video that could then easily be copied/deleted later during a trip. So you might not ever need an extra storage device, laptop etc.

A really talented videographer could also buy one of those DVD burners that Sony/Canon both sell and bypass needing a computer entirely for things like recording dives for divetrip customers. And they're under $200.

 

[diversteve]

If I must choose between tape and HDD, I'll probably go for HDD. But, if I can choose from any format, I'd go for flash mem based camcorders like the Sanyo DMX-HD1000.

As I see it the Sanyo suffers from two problems. Lack of housing support due to it's non-standard format and at 12MBPS it's half the quality of HDV or the newer Canon 24MBPS camcorders.

Less moving parts, less trouble. But then, considering the price drop in SSDs, camcorders will probably have SSD instead of HDDs/tapes in the near future IMO.

They already do, Sony's CX12 and Canon's HF11 are recent examples.

 

[super7]

As I see it the Sanyo suffers from two problems. Lack of housing support due to it's non-standard format and at 12MBPS it's half the quality of HDV or the newer Canon 24MBPS camcorders.

There are housings available for these already, at least in the Japanese market. They sell for around US$400 over here.
Epoque World : products-digitalhousing EHS-1000HD
As for the low bit rate, I must agree it's a drawback. But then, the lower bit rate allows for longer recording time.

Why record with lower quality when you're actually shooting in 1080i? Don't ask me, ask the guys at Sanyo Maybe they couldn't predict the drop in flash mem prices, the mem card format doesn't allow large enough memory for 24MBPS, etc?

They already do, Sony's CX12 and Canon's HF11 are recent examples.

Thanks. I did suspect some models may have them (large enough onboard flash to be considered SSD), but didn't know which models actually had them.

 

[robint]

just back from Roatan........ and had the F happen. :shocked2: :depressed: Yes, camcorder toasted on 2nd day. :shocked2: The good thing is that I was shooting tape, 1 tape per day, so I have the footage from the first day topside and underwater. If I wasn't shooting tape, I wouldn't have any video product from my trip.

'nuff said.

robin

 

[diversteve]

I'm not trying to argue but anything written to a HDD based camera would likely survive as of the 2 camcorder floods I've seen the battery shorting and fusing to the camera is what stopped them. So the sealed Hard Drive footage would likely still be recoverable. Most newer hard drives, the heads lift from the surface of the disk when there's a power failure instead of "crashing" into the media.

Time to move up to HDV?

 

[ronscuba]

Robin, so sorry to hear.

That just sucks. :depressed:

 

[cjfox]

Anyone flood a HDD ? Did you recover the data?

I use tape because on my budget I follow the trailing edge of technology.

 

[diversteve]

I use tape because on my budget I follow the trailing edge of technology.

I know that feeling, I bought my HC1 about 3 months before it was discontinued.

Of course that was just before the price dropped also.

 

[diverbob]

I prefer the HDD. I always take my laptop with me anyway. I like to download often, whether it is stills or video, so if something isnt looking right, I can make the changes then instead of getting back home and realizing something wasnt right. I didnt want the hassle of tapes, because I know of too many people that have gone on trips, and then by the time they get back, unpack and get ready to do something with the video, they are missing a tape or two. Maybe I just have unorganized friends. But at least I know my files are on my laptop...somewhere...