*DAMN R6 Forum

I have owned good MiniDV cameras and Hi-8. i know the differences between the two. i always liked the quality of analog film better then digital, but i could never get the analog tape to come through the tv tuner right, tons of dropped frames and all that. does Digital-8 use analog 8mm tapes, or are they digital? it's probably a stupid question..i read that digital8's record and twice the speed of hi-8. does this mean that it records 50/48 full frames per second, or does it record 25/24 and interlace? any more info, links would be nice. thanks.

also, what lenses do professional films usually use? wideangle? would it be possible to use a still camera's lens on a camcorder if it fits? i like all the manual focus controls that are right on the lens much better.

Hey Bronts

Digital-8  uses standard analog Video Hi8 tapes, but records the video signal in digital form using the DV codec. Recording time is halved for Hi8 tapes because of the extra information you need to store with digital - no it dosn't interlace :) not sure of the exact fps

In terms of quality you should find Digital8 is very good - its  comparable to the DV and MiniDV formats.

Worth noting that Digital-8 is very much a consumer format, you won't find any 3CDD chip cameras or any broadcast quality hardware...  Personally if you want to move up from MiniDV or DV i would highly recommend DVC PRO - the quality compared to MiniDV is incredible .. its bloody expensive though!

 What camera you using at the moment, ive never used a camera that hasn't had the manual focus controls on the lenses (TV Cameras excluded) - I would think that you wouldn't be able to do the lens switch on most cameras - you need to go up the price market for standard interchangeable lenses at which point you have good lenses with the controls your referring to (and you probably wouldn't want to take it off anyway!.

Im with you on the quality you get with 8mm - and despite having used some of the best MiniDV cameras around i still prefered the quality of 8mm... but when i shot a film on DVC pro and sat down and compared it with some MiniDV footage well i was very inpressed... it really picked up all my faults with MiniDV (somthing to be said also for the excellent cameras we were shooting on) ... mind you we could stop right now and start talking about HD ....
 :D

yeah i'm holding out for HD now, i don't care how expensive. i can make enough money to buy one just from the video editing jobs i do. i kind of felt dumb asking the digital8 question, but i honestly didn't know much about it.

Holy shit you must be rolling in the stuff... gad damn it :(

well not necessarily, i only make about 300 a job, +extra for the dvd design. i do have 4 jobs waiting, and i've done 2 already, so i figure sometime late next year i'll have nearly enough. waiting for this thing to be availiable: http://pro.jvc.com/prof/attributes/features.jsp?model_id=MDL101394
doesn't have everything i want but it's small.

Hmm looks nice - what type of lense is it? fluorite?

one very nice solution is the sony HDR-FX1 camcorder: Sony Corporate shop (http://smb.us.sony.biz/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/BB_DisplayProductInformation-Start?ProductSKU=HDRFX1&Dept=smb-dcc_DICamcorders&CategoryName=smb-dcc_DICamcorders_HighDefinitionVideo&RequestChannel=Business). this baby stores either 1080i HD or a normal DV video on miniDV cassettes, and that for $3700; or, if you want the "pro" version, its the HVR-Z1U (http://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBusiness/DisplayModel?m=0&p=2&sp=141&id=78439), which stores 1080i video on DVCAM cassettes. Its a bit more expensive though: $5946.

that first one you posted has everything i need! 24p, 1080i, 16:9. question about 1080i: how many whole frames is that shooting (if i were to deinterlace it)?

Just about everything you want is explained in here (http://www.projectorcentral.com/video_signals.htm) :)

ty bfg. you know, i figured that the progressive frames would have to be 2/3 of the interlaced amount, but i was also under the impression that something like 720 progressive frames was unheard of in consumer priced electronics. i guess i'm just not reading enough lately.

JVC has a HD camcorder which records 720p video, the JY-HD10U (http://pro.jvc.com/prof/attributes/features.jsp?model_id=MDL101394).