Sony DV HandycamBefore the camcorder. This separate portable Betamax recorder and camera arrangement slightly predates the first camcordersJVC GZ-MG555 hybrid camcorder (MPEG-2 SD-Video)MICROMV camcorder and tape (top) compared to miniDV and Hi8 tapes
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Camcorders

A camcorder is a portable electronic device for recording video and audio using a built-in recorder unit. The camcorder contains both a video camera and a video recorder in one unit, hence its portmanteau name. more...

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This compares to previous technology where an acquisition and recording devices would be separate.

The earliest camcorders, developed by companies such as JVC, Sony, and Kodak, used analog videotape. Since the 1990s recording onto digital tape became the norm. Starting from early 2000s tape as storage media is being gradually replaced with tape-free solutions like optical disks, hard disk drives and solid-state memory.

All tape-based camcorders have removable media in form of video cassettes. Solid-state camcorders can have either removable media in form of memory cards, or built-in memory, or both. HDD-based camcorders usually have non-removable media in form of a hard disk drive.

Camcorders that do not use magnetic tape are often called tapeless camcorders. Camcorders that use two different types of media, like built-in HDD and memory card, are often called hybrid camcorders.

History

Video cameras were originally designed for broadcasting television images — see television camera. Cameras found in television broadcast centres were extremely large, mounted on special trolleys, and wired to remote recorders located in separate rooms. As technology advanced, miniaturization eventually enabled the construction of portable video-cameras and portable video-recorders.

Prior to the introduction of the camcorder, portable video-recording required two separate devices: a video-camera and a VCR. Specialized models were introduced by both JVC (VHS) and Sony (Umatic & Betamax) to be used for mobile work. The portable VCR consisted of the cassette player/recorder unit, and a television tuner unit. The cassette unit could be detached and carried with the user for video recording. While the camera itself could be quite compact, the fact that a separate VCR had to be carried generally made on-location shooting a two-man job, however the advent of these portable VCRs helped to eliminate the phrase "film at eleven". Rather than wait for the lengthy process of film developing, portable VCRs and video cameras allowed video to be shown during the 6 o'clock news.

In 1982, two events happened that eventually led to the home camcorder boom: JVC introduced the VHS-C format, and Sony released the first professional camcorder named Betacam. VHS-C was essentially VHS with a reduced-size cassette that had been designed for portable VCRs. Sony's Betacam was a standard developed for professional camcorders, which used S-video (separated luminance & chroma signals) to provide a superior picture. At first, cameramen did not welcome Betacam, because before it, carrying and operating the VCR unit was the work of a video engineer; after Betacam they came to be required to operate both video camera and VCR. However the cable between cameramen and video engineers was eliminated, the freedom of cameramen improved dramatically and Betacam quickly became the standard for both news-gathering and in-studio video editing.

Read more at Wikipedia.org


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Prices current as of last update, 08/21/08 6:12pm.


See also...
8mm, Hi8, VHS, Camcorders, Camcorder & Camcorder Accessories
Digital 8, Camcorders, Camcorder & Camcorder Accessories
DVD, Camcorders, Camcorder & Camcorder Accessories
HDD, Camcorders, Camcorder & Camcorder Accessories
HDV, Camcorders, Camcorder & Camcorder Accessories
MicroMV, Camcorders, Camcorder & Camcorder Accessories
MiniDV, Camcorders, Camcorder & Camcorder Accessories
Other Digital Formats, Camcorders, Camcorder & Camcorder Accessories

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