video cameras

[Nitrox Junkie]

Hey Brian.

You obviously know your stuff. I am glad that I found this board to get all the nitty gritty on this stuff.

First I would like to say thanks for all your help and as of today the 4th of april its about 60degrees and sunny. It is supposed to be near 70 by the weekend; NO pain here.

Anyway the camera that I mentioned, the jvc GR-SX850u is a digital camera, atleast this is what I get from what I have read. It has the mini tapes, the small one's that you mentioned, and I have looked at one and the size is pretty compact. Did you go and check out the link that I posted? If you havent go up and check it out and get back to me on your thoughts.

I was happy to see that you found it even cheaper than I did. Thanks again.

Oh and thank you to mario I would appreciate that. With to videoagraphers that know what they are talking about I will get the best deal and be recording for years to come.
Jeff Greatlakes diver!

 

[bdombrowski]

Jeff:

The jvc GR-SX850u is NOT a digital video camera. It is a compact VHS (VHS-C) camera that supports a proprietary VHS ET mode. This is an analog format. I checked the link you posted and verify this.

Personally, I would try hard to stay away from VHS-C format. It's an unreliable format and the tape length is very short... I think 60 min max. Further, VHS-C is disappearing from the market pretty quick.

I would go with a camera that supports Hi-8 or Digital-8 tape format if you want quality results. If you're not a stickler about video quality, go with a cheap camcorder that supports the regular 8mm tape format before you chose a VHS-C one. Regular 8mm video tape has the same video quality as VHS-C, but the format is more popular, the tapes are physically smaller and record time is longer.

Brian

 

[bdombrowski]

Jeff:

Did you look at this Ikelite package using the JVC-DVL805u camera?

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/jvc_digpkg2.html

This is a digital camera (mini DV tape format.) Ikelite list it for $1900. B & H probably sells it for around $1600 I would guess.

Mini DV is a smaller digital tape than digital-8. They are a bit more expensive than digital-8 tapes, but it is a popular digital format. The only reason I prefer digital-8 over mini DV is mini DV tapes are limited to 60 minutes and cost over twice as much.

Brian