Digital8 vs MiniDV

[Tony Laubach]

Andy,

Going back to D8; if you go to ebay, you can still find a few Sony TRV350s lying around. All of those have Hi8 playback with them. Something to consider.

Good luck!

I'm in the market for a new camcorder, and was looking for a Digital8 because my current camcorder is Hi8 which uses the same tapes. However I found I could not find one at ANY store. If I was to have a Mini DV camcorder, it would have to be one that has a VCR mode with analog input so that I can copy my Hi8 tapes through it to the computer. However, I could not find any with THAT feature either. Which models have this?

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

Decided to buy this one:

http://www.buydig.com/shop/product.aspx?sku=PNPVGS39

Has anyone had any experience with this model?

Man thats awfully cheap let me know how that works for you esspecially in low light, at that price its almost hard to go wrong.

 

[Dan Cook]

Man thats awfully cheap let me know how that works for you esspecially in low light, at that price its almost hard to go wrong.

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Panasonic-PV-GS39-Camcorder-Review.htm

They said so/so for low light.

 

[Chris Nuttall]

I just got the Panasonic PV-GS500. The firewire on my old Sony went, but had 3 months left on the Best Buy warranty. So, they did a junkout exchange and replaced it with a new camera. I was going to have to make up about $600 after getting a new warranty, but they screwed up on shipping the camera in from another store. I was told it would take 3 days, and it was 2 weeks. So, they replaced it for free....I just had to pay $150 for the new service plan.

I'm looking forward to taking it chasing this spring. I recorded the big fireworks display in downtown Tulsa that kicked off Oklahoma's Centennial celebrations. I also recorded some video two days after the ice storm as I drove to work. I haven't viewed the videos yet, so I haven't evaulated them. I'm really interested in seeing the fireworks video to test the low light performance. If I ever get around to the videos, I'll post them so others can get an idea of the performance.

It doesn't have analog-to-digital passthrough, but it has the three main features I wanted: manual focus ring, top-loading tape, and 3 CCDs. I really lucked out. Best Buy only offers 3-4 camcorders now that use miniDV, or any tape for that matter. They are all transitioning to DVD or hard drives.

Oh yeah, another perk....I was able to pick up the highest capacity battery at NewEgg for ~$30.

 

[Chris C Sanner]

I just got the Panasonic PV-GS500. The firewire on my old Sony went, but had 3 months left on the Best Buy warranty. So, they did a junkout exchange and replaced it with a new camera. I was going to have to make up about $600 after getting a new warranty, but they screwed up on shipping the camera in from another store. I was told it would take 3 days, and it was 2 weeks. So, they replaced it for free....I just had to pay $150 for the new service plan.

I'm looking forward to taking it chasing this spring. I recorded the big fireworks display in downtown Tulsa that kicked off Oklahoma's Centennial celebrations. I also recorded some video two days after the ice storm as I drove to work. I haven't viewed the videos yet, so I haven't evaulated them. I'm really interested in seeing the fireworks video to test the low light performance. If I ever get around to the videos, I'll post them so others can get an idea of the performance.

It doesn't have analog-to-digital passthrough, but it has the three main features I wanted: manual focus ring, top-loading tape, and 3 CCDs. I really lucked out. Best Buy only offers 3-4 camcorders now that use miniDV, or any tape for that matter. They are all transitioning to DVD or hard drives.

Oh yeah, another perk....I was able to pick up the highest capacity battery at NewEgg for ~$30.

I have been noticing that trend at a lot of stores these days as well. Call me old fashioned....but I like to have hard copy master tapes to store away so I can be confident that I'll always have my video on backup.

To be a bit more on-topic, Mini-DV is absolutely the only real way to go in terms of long-term use because of the fact that Digital8 is disappearing everywhere. Like others have said here, you definitely can't go wrong with an older Digital8 model but your search for tapes might be a bit tougher than just waltzing into your local wal-mart/best buy, etc. and picking up a few MiniDV tapes in the future.

 

[David Drummond]

Are digital8 tapes really that hard to find elsewhere? Our local Walmart has 3 brands of them on the shelf.

 

[Chris C Sanner]

They shouldn't be too hard to find right now, but as the Digital8 continues to fade I'm sure they will get fewer and fewer as time goes on. If someone was looking for a 3 year investment into a camcorder (or longer) I'd advise go Mini-DV for many reasons not limited to that. On the flip-side going anything but digi in regards to camcorders is asking for trouble as you lose that ability to edit video "on the fly" on a computer, etc.

 

[David Drummond]

Yeah, I certainly wouldn't recommend anything LESS than a digital8 with firewire capability just for that reason. They are too cheap now not to go with at least that. I noticed walmart was also not only still selling VHS-C tapes, but even VHS-C camcorders!! I didn't even know they were still producing those!

Least year sometime my local little Walmart clearanced out a bunch of MiniDV tapes and I bought up the entire lot. I have enough to last at least 2 years of heavy taping!