TECH SPECIAL...How to select the right videocamera

How to select the right videocamera

Here’s how to choose between hard drive and flash memory cameras and figure out which of the two mediums better suit your need

COMPRESSED VS. UNCOMPRESSED VIDEO FILES

>> One of the most noticeable points of comparison you’ll find between handheld videocameras that save the stuff you shoot to flash memory (also called Solid State Drives) rather than the heavier ones that save directly to an inbuilt hard drive is actually the amount of time it takes to save what you’ve just shot, before shutting it down. In the case of a hard driveequipped videocamera, most models save the video clip as it is — uncompressed state, and the camera’s inbuilt microchip does not alter the clip after you’re done filming. In the case of flash devices, the video file is slightly compressed. This may reduce the sampling bitrate of the video before finally writing it to the flash card, thereby saving space. Most flash cards cannot support high transfer rates for long clips. Therefore, the camera writes the unprocessed video to the cache memory where the compression happens, after which it is transferred to the flash card. Now, in the case with hard-disk equipped camcorders, the drive writes the video file directly to the device without the need to compress anything.

RESEMBLANCES

>> Be it USB, SD or microSD cards, flash devices can read and write matter fast enough to decode all but the highest-bandwidth videos. And considering you’re not using a camcorder to shoot a full-length feature film, a flash-memory based device should easily suit your needs. A couple of higher-end camcorders offer you both options — built-in hard drives as well as the flash card option, should you so wish to use them. Additionally, most cameras regardless of their storage mediums, tend to shoot in a popular file format that’s common to both types.

THE PORTABILITY FACTOR

>> This might be a point to consider if the size of a gadget matters to you. Because a flash drive has no moving parts, sizes can be condensed into something that can fit into a lady’s clutch purse. Needless to say, they are also more lightweight. On the other hand, a 2.5-inch hard drive is about the same size as many smartphones, and heavier than virtually any modern cellphone. But of of course, the image quality tells the difference.

COST FACTOR

>> Probably the most important thing that can influence your decision in choosing between certain kinds

of camcorders is the cost. Most HDD camcorders use 2.5-inch laptop drives similar to those available at your neighborhood computer store. These require more effort and expense to construct and so, the added cost comes along with it. A small price to pay however, for being able to record the original, raw file.

TRANSFERRING MEDIA

>> These days, interconnectivity and sharing data take an important place. Most hard disk driveequipped camcorders will allow you to transfer or copy that precious vacationvideo from the internal hard drive to a USB stick or other flash media. Some HDD camcorders, however, limits your options to using a USB or Firewire (in the case of a mac) cable to copy data from the camera to a PC. As long as you have the proper drivers installed (usually done after purchase using the CD or DVD that comes packaged with the camera) the laptop’s operating system detects the internal drive of the camera and configures it as an external hard drive on the PC. You can then access the camera’s hard drive in Windows Explorer or another file manager application to copy/paste/transfer videos as you see fit.

Some camcorders are equipped with the same size of hard discs found in laptops



Videocameras that use flash drives are usually more compact, but less capable in terms of rich quality, than their HDD counterparts



Generally speaking, cameras with built-in hard drives cost a whole lot more than flash ones



With flash media camcorders, you can simply remove the flash card from the camera, insert it into a compatible smartphone or PC card reader, and view files without having to copy them from one device to another

Reagan Gavin Rasquinha BT130227