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Thoughts on what to use to play MiniDv tapes for capture
Hello, I have been using a Canon Optura 20 video camera to play my MiniDv tapes for firewire capture into Vegas. The camera seems to be acting up (many hours on it) and I wanted to get thoughts on what would be the most economical way to go as far as replacing it. Decks are so expensive and are out of my budget at this time. Should I just purchase another camcorder? If so do you have any thoughts on brands & models?
Thanks
Dave P. -
3 Replies
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I would imagine that the most economical way to go is to get a used camera that perhaps has a broken lens or something, that you can get for practically nothing and then just abuse it as a capture device.
But, Sony added a nice feature to some of its miniDV cams where you can use the docking station to dub from composite sources directly into the computer via firewire, bypassing the tape and heads. So if you’re dubbing analog source footage other that miniDV, you don’t wear down the heads. Of course this won’t help your problem if you’re footage is coming from miniDV tape itself. But it’s a nice extra feature to consider if you’re looking at the bigger picture.
Good luck.
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Hi Dave,
I know what you mean. You always try not to use the same camera to capture and then transfer into your computer. There’s to much wear and tear on the heads in your camera. I went out and bought a cheap Canon ZR100 (new of coarse) from Sam’s Club. If anything goes wrong with that camera, it goes directly into the garbage.
Good Luck!Ralph Hajik
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“There’s to much wear and tear on the heads in your camera…”
Hogwash. You would have to run a LOT of tape through the camera to wear anything out. You would have to be in a full-time video business to get that many hours on a camera, and then to get that many hours, you would have to be pretty busy and probably easily afford a few editing positions with permanent decks.
I should Wish that I had enough business for this to be a remote concern.
On the other hand even for the part-time videographer, buying a used camera for capture is a good idea simply because it doesn’t tie up your shooting camera.
Also, never, ever use a cheap tape rewinder. Ever. Again, you are not wearing out your camera head. (And if you are, then buy a few decks for your editing crew). The cheap rewinders do not sense the hub speed to detect the approaching end of the tape and they depend on the strength of he tape and the connection to the hub to stop the rewind. It only needs to fail once for you to throw the thing under the bus.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com
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