Camcorders: Camcorder recording formats
Picking the best camcorder to suit your needs can be a tricky task, particularly given the range of recording options available. The best digital camcorders record movies in sharp detail with excellent sound to match, but there's no rule of thumb that any one recording format will always guarantee better video quality than any other. Check the Which? digital camcorder reviews to see which models excelled in our thorough tests, and for more on the differences between recording formats, see our guide below:
Mini-DV camcorders
Mini-DV camcorder tapes are easy to store and use
Mini-DV camcorders record on Mini-DV tapes. The tapes are roughly the size of a small bar of soap - the type you get in hotels - so they're easy to store and easy to use.
They offer a lot of recording time for your money: a 60-minute tape costs around £3. Switch to you camcorder's long-play mode and you'll get 90 minutes of recording time, although sound quality will be reduced slightly.
There may also be some compatibility problems if you try to play the tape in another camcorder.
Mini-DV is the best camcorder format if you want to get into video editing on your computer, partly because video image quality post-editing is likely to be better than with other camcorder formats. See our video editing software reviews for Best Buy packages.
DVD camcorders
DVD camcorders record on blank 8cm DVDs. These are smaller than the normal type, but still fit in nearly all DVD players and computers after you've finished recording on them.
A typical camcorder blank DVD
You can normally only record about 20 minutes on these DVDs at the camcorder's highest-quality setting, but some camcorders also accept dual layer (DL) discs which almost double recording time. You can also get double sided discs, but these are quite rare.
Types of camcorder disc
Camcorder discs come in five main recording formats: DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM, each with slightly different features.
DVD-R discs are the cheapest type, about £1 each, but unlike other types you can record on them only once. RW and RAM discs are re-writable many times.
You can't play DVD-RAM discs in most DVD players. But with DVD-RAM, DVD-RW and DVD+RW discs, you can do a little bit of editing on the camcorder itself (rather than having to transfer it to your PC and use video-editing software).
Camcorders using DVDs can usually use more than one format – check each camcorder's specification to see which formats it accepts.
One drawback of DVD camcorders is that start-up time is a bit slow, so they're not the very best for spontaneous shooting.
Hard disk camcorders
Without the need for tape or DVD, hard-disk camcorders are often smaller and lighter than Mini-DV or DVD camcorders, with a cleaner design. They usually record on an internal fixed hard disk.
These internal hard disks are usually 30GB in size or more. Very roughly, 30GB can hold seven hours of footage recorded at the camcorder's highest recording-quality level.
Most memory card camcorders use the SD type card
To transfer footage from your camcorder to your computer, a USB2.0 connection on your computer is virtually a must.
Memory card camcorders
These camcorders are usually significantly smaller than other types of camcorder, and record onto a memory card.
Memory cards can be quite expensive to buy, especially if you want one with a high capacity, as almost certainly you will – video, especially on higher-quality camcorder settings, takes up a lot of memory space.