Tripod Productions LLC

Please explain different types of Camcorders (HD, HDD, HDR, etc. Please read)?

I’m looking for a camcorder with a Hard Drive only. Meaning I don’t want to insert any tapes, DVD’s, Mini DVD’s, etc.

A hard disc drive (HDD) based camcorder has an internal hard disc drive used for storing video. Typically, this can record for longer than the camcorder’s battery will last so either additional optional batteries from the camcorder manufacturer are needed or the camcorder should be powered from its AC adapter. For consumer camcorders, the video recorded to the internal hard drive can be standard definition MPEG2 or high definition (HD) AVCHD compressed MTS files. Some manufacturers of the AVCHD/MTS camcorder do not allow recording standard definition video – only more or less compressed versions of high definition MTS video files. In either case, the stored video is very compressed and video quality is not as good when compared to miniDV tape.

For point of reference, miniDV tape camcorders can be marked HD – more typically, they will be marked HDV (High Definition Video format). DV and HDV video use the least compression which means the least amount of video is discarded during the digital video compression process which means the video is potentially the best available video quality.

Generally, consumer grade HDD camcorders record the same video file formats as flash memory. MPG files for standard definition video, MTS for AVCHD compressed high definition video. The compression is typically the same when the camcorders are approximately equivalent – so the video quality will be the same.

Since you have already decided that HDD is what you want to store your video, then you apparently already know that hard disc drives – whether in a camcorder or computer – have some interesting limitations. Specifically, high levels of vibration (commonly from loud audio, like bands whether they are amplified or not, loud and large cheering crowds, loud motors, etc.) can cause the hard disc drive to stop recording in an effort to protect itself from the hard drive heads scruffing the platters and crashing the drive… and high altitude can have low enough air-pressure that the heads are not able to fly over the platters… in both cases, no recording will happen and a “buffer overflow” message can appear. The error message goes away when the problem (vibration or low air pressure) is no longer happening.

Usually, most folks look for “best video quality” or “best audio recording” when looking for a camcorder. Since that is not important to you, then we don’t need to go there. Generally, large lenses and imaging chips (for good low light video quality behavior) and manual audio control (to keep really loud audio from overdriving the auto-mic gain nearly all camcorder use in “auto” mode) are solutions provided. Assuming the reason for the internal hard drive is long record time, then the only thing you need to look for is the largest internal hard drive available with the $ you are willing to spend.

Some related questions:
When the hard disc drive is full of video, how are you planning to make space available to record more video?
What computer are you planning to use for video editing?
What video editing application ar you planning to use?
Does transcoding the video before getting it into the video editor (yes, that is an extra step) concern you?
How long do you need to store the video – for archiving? Where are you planning to store the video?

So… what is your budget and what hard disc drive camcorders fit… and which one has the largest hard disc drive? Sony, Canon and Panasonic have products that meet your simple, single, requirement.

Panasonic HS25 100GB HDD Camcorder Unboxing