Sony Digital HandyCam(tm) Camcorder?

[ScaryBinary]

Hey hoodlums,

I was thinking about purchasing a digital video recorder. I had been looking at Sony's Digital Handycam recorder, which uses something called Digital8 technology.

I was under the impression that a digital recorder would work like a digital camera; i.e., no need for any film/tape, everything is stored in memory somewhere. However, it turns out that with the Digital Handycam, you still need the 8mm tape...!

So, even though I guess it gathers the video digitally, it still must convert it to analog and record it on the standard 8mm tape. Wouldn't you still lose some resolution? Do you really gain anything by recording digitally if you have to convert it back to analog anyway? Just wondering if I'm missing something here.

Thanks,
Scary http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/icons/icon11.gif Binary

PS: all Sony stuff is property, trademark, whatever of Sony, and sorry for any spelling mistakes, my browser doesn't support it!

[ghostface]

i thought it stored everything digitally just on tape. cheaper than a bunch of memory sticks. then again, i have been know to be wrong.

[Target]

Not sure how the camera works, but I don't understand why you think it has to be converted from a digital format to analog simply to write to the tape.

[jad1097]

It does use a memory stick for still shots.

I would say it is a digital still camera that records digital video to tape.

[ScaryBinary]

OK, as many of you pointed out, there's no need to convert to analog to record to the tape. Apparently I had my head in a warm, dark place, because that didn't even dawn on me.

I guess I just figured since a digital camera doesn't use any film or tape of some sort, a digital video recorder wouldn't either.

Thanks for the wake-up call!

ScaryBinary

[bhess]

It's all done with one's and zero's my boy...
I have a Sony digital camcorder and love it. They didn't make it back then with the memmory stick. That's a great feature. I can take stills with it but they would be in the middle of whatever I was taping. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/frown.gif