Digital Video Camera vs. Camcorder?

Chet Nozick: This Site Might Help You.RE:Digital Video Camera vs. Camcorder?Which is a better purchase between the digital video camera or an actual camcorder? What are the perks and downfalls of each?...Show more

Bell Pasco: It depends on what you want to use them for and what your budget is... and I guess I need to understand what your definition of a "digital video camera" is - because in my mind, a digital video camera and a camcorder are the same thing - and I'll presume all are digital since analog camcorders aren't very common anymore. I do see a huge difference between a DSC/DSLR and a digital camcorder...Most digital still cameras that capture video (including the few DSLRs with the capability), will do a fine job taking stills - but the video they capture is very highly compressed and generally a pain to edit. Typically, some sort of video conversion is required. None of them have any sort of audio control - and most of them do only mono (not stereo) audio! .Most camcorders do a fine job capturing video - whether standard definition or high definition - and their built-in stereo mics can provide much better audio capture... even better are those with manual audio control and a mic jack. Their ability to take stills is OK - but nothing spectacular.If you are referring to the difference between a "digital video camera" - that is, one that saves primarily video to hard disc drive, flash memory or DVD and a "camcorder" as one that saves video to miniDV tape, then let's be clear... All four are camcorders that save video to different digital video formats.MiniDV tape storing DV or HDV format video compresses digital video stream the least.Flash memory and hard dics drive compress the video stream into MPEG2 or AVCHD (standard definition or high definition) more than miniDV tape - along with high definition consume-grade AVCHD DVD camcorders.Standard definition consumer DVD based camcorders the highest compression digital video file! s in VOB format files that can be very difficult to deal with,! they are the worst video quality - and should be avoided....Show more

Boyce Gilhooly: Camera Vs Camcorder

Rodrigo Pezley: i would get the camera. You can take pictures AND videos on it. and it is easier to carry,its smaller, and probobly costs less. A camcorder is better if you ONLY want to take videos. Again, i think the camera is a better choice.