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Home Video, Camera and HD

You have determined that you want to embark on recording live events in moving images for the first time, but what kind of video camera should you buy? Writing a really elaborate answer would require an entire book, so here I’ll try to give you a very brief version.

I am going to assume that you are an individual and not a professional movie maker, and that this may even be the first camera you are buying (if it isn’t – no matter, the advice holds true all the same). You are probably looking for the kind of camera that would be easy to take with you, that is easy to use and that records in a format that is compatible with the various computer programs and television screens of today.

There’e certainly more than one camera that will fit the bill, and what you choose will be largely dependent on the quality you desire for your finished movie project. For projects shot in low resolution, appropriate for the web for instance, something along the lines of those new flip video cameras would do the trick. On the other hand, if you desire Full HD picture quality for displaying on your brand new flat screen, you may opt for a camera recording in the Avchd file format. This means you also need avchd video editing software, which is now widely available.

Why High Definition?

Although the TV-screens and devices seen today are of course the greatest and technologically most advanced pieces of hardware we have ever had, the term “high defintition” is actually not a new one. It was used back in the 1930s as well, both in America and in Britain, when the existing generation of systems where replaced with screens that where able to display higher resolution – 525 lines to be exact for the NTSC system. Then as now the term really indicated that it was “better than before”, but the HD of today is of course also a particular technical standard.

Nonetheless, the broad term high defintion can mean many different formats, riding on who talks about it and in which context.

Basically, high definition television is the most evolved form of digital television, that has surfaced so far. It makes full use of the 16:9 aspect ratio, which is the same as a movie theater screen, that is standard on all new TVs. The resolution is up to five times from ordinary (SD) resolution, which on a big enough screen is a great improvement indeed. What it really boils down to – high definition is the best available picture on a television. Nevertheless, there are three distinct adaptations of it: 720p, 1080i and 1080p. Only the last mention one is “full hd” and is also the new blu-ray standard.

The format to work with avchd video editing, is most of the time 1080i. Even more information about video production is on tap here.