Picking a Digtal Camera and Computer Combo

Mark, great article. I want to provide some information about digital video since I just got married and prior to the big day my wife and I decided to buy both a camera and computer for video editing and DVD creation.

I disagree, and here’s why:
1. You’re going to lose quality in the transfer and in the media. The end result is a non-precise analog video created from the clean digital source. If this is going to be your method, you may as well by a VHS camcorder from a store that still carries them.
2. Any new PC today with at least 512 MB or RAM should be capable of handling digital video for home use. If you start getting into the professional-grade stuff, then you’re going to need a bigger system, but for home video, you don’t.
3. VHS is a dying thing. It’s like making a cassette tape for someone… chances are they won’t be able to play it.
4. The quality is in the camera. The fact that it’s digital means that 1’s and 0’s get passed, not analog signals. If the camera is recording low quality images, the computer isn’t going to help it out. Look for cameras with CCDs, usually 1 per your three main digital colors: Red, Green, and Blue. These will produce amazingly sharp images. I use a Panasonic PV-GS150 and it is awesome.

…the list goes on with minor things, but I think I hit the little ones. The bottom line is that I wouldn’t compromise.

This is true for PCs. A friend of mine just got Pinnacle which is similar to what I use and it was $90. I personally use an Apple PowerMac with iMovie and iDVD. Both programs are very high quality and come installed on new computers as a part of the iLife software package, which includes photo and sound editing software in addition to video editing software. We used this to make a 50 minute video full of clips from the wedding festivities. With the menu features of DVD, it’s much nicer than having a tape. Some things to consider:

1. Use the DV (digital video) port on your camera to connect to your computer via FireWire. With the digital connection, the computer can take control of your camera and import your video as clips, with each clip beginning at the places you stopped/started recording. After that, it’s all drag and drop to make your video.

2. With digital its very easy to add music and trim scenes. Let’s face it, some of our home video is just boring. But if you take a few seconds from several boring clips and add music, it can become quite entertaining.

3. You have far more options for digital video today than you do for VHS. If you don’t already have the VHS equipment, don’t spend the money on it. Put your money into a new camera and computer.

4. Price. While shopping, I found that for a decent video camera, you’ll need to spend around $500. This will get you a high megapixel cound and usually 3 "CCD"s, or color processors. They will output very high quality digital images and stereo sound. For the computer, I got a PowerMac G5 with dual 2Ghz processors for $1400 used. This thing has power to spare. But the nice thing is that you don’t have to spend that much. For $600, you should easily be able to find a PC beefy enough to handle digital video.

5. Hard Drive. All of the other components of your computer will just make digital editing faster. But you will need a big hard drive to handle your edits. For my hour-long video, my computer is using 25 GB to store it on the disk (the movie edit file that is, the actual disk image is 2.95 GB). There are settings you can use to lower this, but it limits your options. If nothing else, go big on your hard drive. Allocate room for nothing but video editing. My disk is 250 GB and it serves all of my needs.

…so, in conclusion, I think DV is the way to go. This isn’t necessarily stated as a complete contradiction to Mark’s conclusion either. There are definitely instances where VHS may actually suit you better. But if you’ve got the money or the existing system, and don’t need to produce VHS, I’d say DV all the way. If you’re not a "power-user" when it comes to computers and you don’t do much other than email and surf AND you’re looking for a new one, give the Apples a look. The pre-installed video software package is nicer than most anything you’ll pay for off-the-shelf on a PC and it comes with their new computers. Or if you’ve got an Apple, drop the $79 and grab iLife. If you go PC, you’re going to have to buy the software separate to get anything decent. Pinnacle is the nicest I’ve seen, but I’m sure there are others.

Happy editing!