In order to differentiate a camcorder from other devices that are capable of recording video, like mobile phones and digital compact cameras, a camcorder is generally identified as a portable, self-contained device having video capture and recording as its primary function.
The earliest camcorders employed analog recording onto videotape. Tape-based camcorders use removable media in the form of video cassettes. Nowadays, digital recording has become the norm, with tape being gradually replaced with other storage media such as internal flash memory, hard drive and SD card. As of January 2011, none of the new consumer-class camcorders announced at the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show record on tape.
Camcorders that do not use magnetic tape are often called tapeless camcorders, while camcorders that permit using more than one type of medium, like built-in hard disk drive and memory card, are sometimes called hybrid camcorders.
Video cameras originally designed for television broadcast were large and heavy, mounted on special pedestals, and wired to remote recorders located in separate rooms.
As technology advanced, out-of-studio video recording was made possible by means of compact video cameras and portable video recorders. The recording unit could be detached from the camera and carried to a shooting location. While the camera itself could be quite compact, the fact that a separate recorder had to be carried along made on-location shooting a two-man job. Specialized Videocassette recorders were introduced by both JVC (VHS) and Sony (U-matic and Betamax) to be used for mobile work. The advent of the portable recorders helped to eliminate the phrase "film at eleven"—rather than wait for the lengthy process of film developing, recorded video could be shown during the 6 o'clock news.
In 1982 Sony released the Betacam system. A part of this system was a single camera-recorder unit, which eliminated the cable between camera and recorder and dramatically improved the freedom of a cameraman. Betacam used the same format 1/2" tape cassette as Betamax, but running much faster for higher quality and reliability. It quickly became the standard for both news-gathering and in-studio video editing.
In 1983 Sony released the first consumer camcorder—the Betamovie BMC-100P. It used a Betamax cassette and could not be held with one hand, so it was typically resting on a shoulder. In the same year JVC released the first camcorder based on VHS-C format.
In 1985 Sony came up with its own compact video cassette format—Video8. Both VHS-C and Video8 had their benefits and drawbacks, and neither won the format war.
In 1985, Panasonic, RCA, and Hitachi began producing camcorders that recorded to full-sized VHS cassette and offered up to 3 hours of record time. These shoulder-mount camcorders found a niche with videophiles, industrial videographers, and college TV studios. Super VHS (S-VHS) full-sized camcorders were released in 1987 which exceeded the broadcast quality of the day and provided an inexpensive way to collect news segments or videographies. Sony matched this with the release of Hi8, an upgraded version of Video8.
In 1986 Sony introduced the first digital video format, D1. Video was recorded in uncompressed form and required enormous bandwidth for its time. In 1992 Ampex used D1 form-factor to create DCT, the first digital video format that utilized data compression. The compression utilized discrete cosine transform algorithm, which is used in most modern commercial digital video formats.
In 1995 Sony, JVC, Panasonic and other video camera manufacturers launched DV, which quickly became a de-facto standard for home video production, for independent filmmaking and for citizen journalism. In the same year Ikegami introduced Editcam - the first tapeless video recording system.
In 2000 Panasonic launched DVCPRO HD, expanding the DV codec to support high definition. The format was intended for use in professional camcorders and used full-size DVCPRO cassettes. In 2003 Sony, JVC, Canon and Sharp introduced HDV, the first truly affordable high definition video format, which used inexpensive MiniDV cassettes.
In 2003 Sony pioneered XDCAM, the first tapeless video format, which uses Professional Disc as recording media. Panasonic followed next year, offering P2 solid state memory cards as recording medium for DVCPRO HD video.
In 2006 Panasonic and Sony introduced AVCHD as an inexpensive consumer-grade tapeless high definition video format. Presently AVCHD camcorders are manufactured by Sony, Panasonic, Canon, JVC and Hitachi.
In 2007 Sony introduced XDCAM EX, which offers similar recording modes to XDCAM HD, but records on SxS memory cards.
With proliferation of file-based digital formats the relationship between recording media and recording format became weaker than ever: the same video can be recorded onto different media. With tapeless formats, recording media has become a storage device for digital files, signifying convergence of video and computer industries.
In consumer units, the above adjustments are often automatically controlled by the camcorder's electronics, but can be adjusted manually if desired. Professional units offer direct user control of all major optical functions.
All but the most primitive camcorders imaginable also need to have a recorder-controlling section which allows the user to control the camcorder, switch the recorder into playback mode for reviewing the recorded footage and an image control section which controls exposure, focus and white-balance.
The image recorded need not be limited to what appeared in the viewfinder. For documentation of events, such as used by police, the field of view overlays such things as the time and date of the recording along the top and bottom of the image. Such things as the police car or constable to which the recorder has been allotted may also appear; also the speed of the car at the time of recording. Compass direction at time of recording and geographical coordinates may also be possible. These are not kept to world-standard fields; "month/day/year" may be seen, as well as "day/month/year", besides the ISO standard "year-month-day".
In older analog camcorders, the imaging device was based on vacuum tube technology where the charge on a light sensitive target was in direct proportion to the amount of light striking it. A popular example of such an imaging tube was the Vidicon. Newer analog and all digital camcorders use a solid state Charge Coupled Device (CCD) imaging device, or more recently a CMOS imager. Both of these latter devices use photodiodes that pass a current proportional to the light striking them (i.e. they are analog detectors), but that current is then digitised before being electronically 'scanned' before being fed to the imager's output. The principal difference in the latter two devices is in the manner in which that 'scanning' is accomplished. In the CCD, the diodes are all sampled simultaneously, and the scanning then achieved by passing the digitised data from one register to the next (the Charge Coupled element). In the CMOS device the diodes are sampled directly by the scanning logic.
The take up of digital video storage improved quality. MiniDV storage allows full resolution video (720x576 for PAL,720x480 for NTSC), unlike previous analogue consumer video standards. Digital video doesn't experience colour bleeding, jitter, or fade, although some users still prefer the analog nature of Hi8 and Super VHS-C, since neither of these produce the "background blur" or "mosquito noise" of digital video compression. In many cases, a high-quality analog recording shows more detail (such as rough textures on a wall) than a compressed digital recording (which would show the same wall as flat and featureless).
Unlike analog video formats, the digital video formats do not suffer generation loss during dubbing, but can be more prone to complete loss. Theoretically digital information can be stored indefinitely with zero deterioration on a digital storage device (such as a hard drive), however since some digital formats (like MiniDV) often squeeze tracks only ~10 micrometers apart (versus 19 to 58 μm for VHS), a digital recording is more vulnerable to wrinkles or stretches in the tape that could permanently erase several scenes worth of digital data, but the additions tracking and error correction code on the tape will generally compensate for most defects. On analog media similar damage barely registers as "noise" in the video, still leaving a deteriorated but watchable video. The only limitation is that this video has to be played on a completely analogue viewing system, otherwise the tape will not display any video due to the damage and sync problems. Even digital recordings on DVD are known to suffer from DVD rot that permanently erase huge chunks of data. Thus the one advantage analog seems to have in this respect is that an analog recording may be "usable" even after the media it is stored on has suffered severe deterioration whereas it has been noticed that even slight media degradation in digital recordings may cause them to suffer from an "all or nothing" failure, i.e. the digital recording will end up being totally un-playable without very expensive restoration work.
While some older digital camcorders record video on Microdrives and size-reduced DVD-RAM or DVD-Rs, as of 2011 most recent camcorders record video on flash memory devices and small hard disks, using MPEG-1, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 formats. However, because these codecs use inter-frame compression, frame-specific-editing requires frame regeneration, which incurs additional processing and can cause loss of picture information. (In professional usage, it is common to use a codec that will store every frame individually. This provides easier and faster frame-specific editing of scenes.)
Other digital consumer camcorders record in DV or HDV format on tape and transfer content over FireWire (some also use USB 2.0) to a computer, where the huge files (for DV, 1GB for 4 to 4.6 minutes in PAL/NTSC resolutions) can be edited, converted, and (with many camcorders) also recorded back to tape. The transfer is done in real time, so the complete transfer of a 60 minute tape needs one hour to transfer and about 13GB disk space for the raw footage only—excluding any space needed for render files, and other media. Time spent in post-production (editing) to select and cut the best shots varies from instantaneous "magic" movies to hours of tedious selection, arrangement and rendering.
Even for separate devices intended primarily for motion video, this segment has followed an evolutionary path driven by relentless miniaturization and cost reduction, made possible by progress in design and manufacturing. Miniaturization conflicts with the imager's ability to gather light, and designers have delicately balanced improvements in sensor sensitivity with sensor size reduction, shrinking the overall camera imager & optics, while maintaining reasonably noise-free video in broad daylight. Indoor or dim light shooting is generally unacceptably noisy, and in such conditions, artificial lighting is highly recommended. Mechanical controls cannot scale below a certain size, and manual camera operation has given way to camera-controlled automation for every shooting parameter (focus, aperture, shutter speed, white balance, etc.) The few models that do retain manual override frequently require the user to navigate a cumbersome menu interface. Outputs include USB 2.0, Composite and S-Video, and IEEE 1394/Firewire (for MiniDV models). On the plus side, today's camcorders are affordable to a wider segment of the consumer market, and available in a wider variety of form factors and functionality, from the classic camcorder shape, to small flip-cameras, to video-capable camera-phones and "digicams."
At the high-end of the consumer market, there is a greater emphasis on user control and advanced shooting modes. Feature-wise, there is some overlap between the high-end consumer and "prosumer" markets. More expensive consumer camcorders generally offer manual exposure control, HDMI output and external audio input, progressive-scan framerates (24fps, 25fps, 30fps), and better lenses than basic models. In order to maximize low-light capability, color reproduction, and frame resolution, a few manufacturers offer multi-CCD/CMOS camcorders, which mimic the 3-element imager design used in professional equipment. Field tests have demonstrated most consumer camcorders (regardless of price), to produce noisy video in low light.
Before the 21st century, video editing was a difficult task requiring a minimum of two recorders and possibly a desktop video workstation to control them. Now, the typical home personal computer can hold several hours of standard-definition video, and is fast enough to edit footage without additional upgrades. Most consumer camcorders are sold with basic video editing software, so users can easily create their own DVDs, or share their edited footage online.
In the first world market, nearly all camcorders sold today are digital. Tape-based (MiniDV/HDV) camcorders are no longer popular, since tapeless models (SD card & internal drive) cost almost the same, but offer much greater convenience. For example, video captured on SD card can be transferred to a computer much faster than from digital tape. Hard disk camcorders feature the longest continuous recording time, though the durability of the hard drive is a concern for harsh and high-altitude environments. As of January 2011, none of the new consumer-class camcorders announced at the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show record on tape. However, in some parts of the world, newly-manufactured tape camcorders might still be available due to the lower purchasing power or greater price sensitivity of the consumers in these areas.
When used in the role of a camcorder, a multipurpose-device tends to offer inferior handling and audio/video performance, which limits its usability for extended and/or adverse shooting situations. However, much as camera-equipped cellphones are now ubiquitous, video-equipped electronic devices will likely become commonplace, replacing the market for low-end camcorders.
The past few years have seen the introduction of DSLR cameras with high-definition video. Although they still suffer from the typical handling and usability deficiencies of other multipurpose-devices, HDSLR video offers two videographic features unavailable on consumer camcorders: shallow depth-of-field and interchangeable lenses. Professional video cameras possessing these capabilities are currently more expensive than even the most expensive video-capable DSLR. In video applications where the DSLR's operational deficiencies can be mitigated by meticulous planning of the each shooting location, a growing number of video productions are employing DSLRs, such as the Canon 5D Mark II, to fulfill the desire for depth-of-field and optical-perspective control. Whether in a studio or on-location setup, the scene's environmental factors and camera placement are known beforehand, allowing the director of photography to determine the proper camera/lens setup and apply any necessary environmental adjustments, such as lighting.
A recent development to combine the feature-sets of full-feature still-camera and camcorder in a single unit, is the combo-camera. The Sanyo Xacti HD1 was the first such combo unit, combining the features of a 5.1 megapixel still-camera with a 720p video recorder. Overall, the product was a step forward in terms of a single-device's combined level of handling and usability . The combo camera's concept has caught on with competing manufacturers; Canon and Sony have introduced camcorders with still-photo performance approaching a traditional digicam, while Panasonic has introduced a DSLR-body with video features approaching a traditional camcorder. Hitachi have introduced the DZHV 584E/EW which has 1080p resolution. This model comes with a 3" pop-up touch screen, housed in a slim line-case and about the size of a mobile phone.
Camcorders have found use in nearly all corners of electronic media, from electronic news organizations to TV/current-affairs productions. In locations away from a distribution infrastructure, camcorders are invaluable for initial video acquisition. Subsequently, the video is transmitted electronically to a studio/production center for broadcast. Scheduled events such as official press conferences, where a video infrastructure is readily available or can be feasibly deployed in advance, are still covered by studio-type video cameras (tethered to "production trucks.")
The police use camcorders to film riots, protests and the crowds at sporting events. The film can be used to spot and pick out troublemakers, who can then be prosecuted in court. In countries such as the United States, the use of compact dashboard camcorders in police cars allows the police to retain a record of any activity that takes place in front of the car, such as interaction with a motorist stopped on the highway.
Even high-budget cinema is done using camcorders in some cases; George Lucas used Sony CineAlta camcorders in two of his three Star Wars prequel movies. This process is referred to as digital cinematography.
Meanwhile teacher evaluation increasingly involves teacher's classroom lessons being digitally recorded for review by school administrators and school district officials. This is especially common during the process of tenure-granting (or withholding), and in cases where teacher's continued tenure may be in question. Some feel the use of digital recording allows both school districts and teacher's unions an opportunity to more objectively and comprehensively review aspects of teacher performance in the classroom setting, whilst others, such as Alfie Kohn are far more sceptical.
Recently in many a top ranked School of Education, integration of student camcorder-created material as well as other digital technology has ingrained itself into the fabric of new teacher preparation courses. The University of Oxford Department of Education PGCE programme and NYU's Steinhardt School's Department of Teaching and Learning MAT programme provide two examples of this trend.
The USC Rossier School of Education takes this one step further, by insisting that all students purchase their own camcorder (or similar digital video recording devise) as a prerequisite to beginning their MAT education programmes, many of which are delivered entirely online. These programmes employ a modified version of Adobe Connect to deliver the entire taught component of the MAT@USC. MAT students in-class teaching is captured by camcorder, posted to USC's web portal, and then go through a process of evaluation by faculty in a similar manner to what they would use if they were physically present in class.
In this way the use of the camcorder has allowed USC to entirely de-centralize its teacher preparation away from Southern California to most American states, and several countries around the world; and this has greatly increased the number of teachers they are able to train at once. With significant teacher shortages looming in the USA, UK, Canada and Australia over the next few years, this is likely to be a model which other institutions seek to emulate.
:Hi-Band: Approximately 5 megahertz bandwidth (420 lines EIA resolution or ~550x480 edge-to-edge) ::*U-matic BVU (1982): Largely used in high-end consumer and professional equipment. The introduction of U-matic BVU spelled the end of 16mm film recordings. ::*U-matic BVU-SP (1985): Largely used in high-end consumer and professional equipment. The introduction of U-matic BVU spelled the end of 16mm film recordings. ::*S-VHS (1987): Largely used in medium-end consumer and prosumer equipment; rare among mainstream consumer equipment, and rendered obsolete by digital gear like DigiBetacam and DV. ::*S-VHS-C (1987): An upgrade to provide near-laserdisc quality. Now limited to the low-end consumer market (example: JVC SXM38). As per VHS-C, relatively short running time compared to other formats. ::*Hi8 (1988): Enhanced-quality Video8; roughly equivalent to Super VHS in picture quality, but not compatible. High quality audio as standard. Now limited to low-end consumer market (example: Sony TRV138)
Sony has continued to produce Handycams in a variety of guises ever since, developing the Video8 format to produce Hi8 (equivalent to S-VHS quality) and later Digital8, using the same basic format to record digital video. The Handycam label continues to be applied as recording formats evolve.
A commercial for the Sony Handycam was made in June 2005 in Europe with the song "I Love You, ONO" by Stereo Total.
Category:1983 introductions Category:Consumer electronics
bg:Видеокамера ca:Càmera de vídeo cs:Videokamera da:Videokamera de:Camcorder es:Videocámara de mano fa:دوربین ویدیویی fr:Caméscope ko:캠코더 hi:कैमकॉर्डर id:Kamera perekam it:Videocamera kk:Бейнекамера ml:ക്യാംകോഡർ nl:Camcorder ja:カムコーダ pl:Kamera cyfrowa pt:Camcorder ru:Видеокамера sv:Videokamera ta:நிகழ்படக்கருவி tr:Camcorder vi:Máy quay phim kết hợp zh-yue:手提攝錄機 zh:攝影機This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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