I bought the Canon ZR830 MiniDV Camcorder on Amazon today. But I don’t know…?
August 24, 2010 by: nickadmin1) if MiniDV stands for mini DVDs – and, if so, if I have to buy them.
2) what accessories, if any, I have to buy to make the camcorder work.
3) whether it will be able to record me giving a lecture that, when played back, will have a soundtrack of the speech, not just a “silent movie.”
4) how to create regular DVDs of what is filmed with the camcorder.
I know, these may be really dumb questions, but I’ve never owned a camcorder before! I’m attending a conference next week and I don’t know what I’ll need to bring along besides the camcorder itself.
Any advice would be most appreciated!
MiniDV is miniDV tape. It is a digital tape format that record DV format video. This format is the least compressed video – as a result, it continues to be the choice for many professional videographers. The tapes typically come in 60 minute recording length (when used in SP mode – do not use LP mode) and can be around $3 each (I buy them in 8-packs at Fry’s Electronics for $24.99… they are cheaper in quantities at tapestockonline.com). To get video from these camcorders into a computer, connect a firewire cable (not USB) to the camcorder’s DV port (not USB) and the computer’s firewire port (not USB). With the camcorder in Play mode, launch the video editor and capture or import the video. Don’t re-use the tape and the tape is the archive. When the tape is full, take it out of the camcorder, lock it and put it in its case – consider marking the tape with a Sharpie with the date and some of the video on the tape.
Consumer grade hard disc drive and flash memory camcorders compress the video more than miniDV tape. To get video from these camcorders into a computer, connect a USB cable to the camcorder’s USB port and the computer’s USB port. With the camcorder in Play or PC mode, copy the video from the camcorder to the computer. You may need to transcode – convert – the video before the video editor can deal with it. When you fill the hard drive or the flash memory, you need to copy the video files to a DVD or a computer hard drive so you can delete the files from the HDD or flash memory and continue recording. Archiving the video can be a challenge.
The highest compression – and lowest video quality – comes from consumer standard definition DVD based camcorders. No one should ever waste their money on these – they barely make useful doorstops.
To answer your questions:
1) You will need to get miniDV tapes.
2) If all you have is the camcorder, check the manual:
http://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/1/0900000701/01/ZR850_830NIM1-EN.pdf
It should have come with a rechargeable batter and AC adapter. You can recharge the battery using the AC adapter – as long as the AC adapter can plug into the camcorder and a working wall outlet – and the battery is in the camcorder ready to recharge.
There are other accessories available. See pages 88-90. There are some other accessories that can work that are not made by Canon – but they are optional and not required to do basic video capture.
3) Yes – assuming the audio is loud enough for the camcorder’s built-in mics to hear the audio. The close the camcorder is to the lecturer, the better the audio will be. The ZR830 does not have a mic jack so an external mic cannot be connected.
4) Once you get the video into the computer (1st paragraph), and the video editing is complete, save as the highest quality MOV or WMV video file the video can deal with. Then use a DVD authoring tool (MyDVD or iDVD or Nero or many others) and allow that application to transcode the video to the required VOB format files required for regular DVD player playback.
You will want a tripod or monopod. Humans were not built to remain steady for anything over about 8 seconds.
BEFORE you go to the conference, practice with the camcorder so you are not scrambling and surprised at the conference and not able to get what you need… The battery included in the box will not last too long. A Canon high capacity battery will be a good investment – but they are not inexpensive. See page 20 in the camcorder manual.
These are not dumb questions – all of us started at the same place.
(1) miniDV is a format. There should be one or two tapes in the box, but those will be short (5-10 minutes), just so you can make sure the device is working. You will want to go buy a package of at least three 60-minute MiniDV tapes. They are available everywhere. Do not spend more than $15 on them.
(2) It should work “as is.”
(3) Yes, it has a microphone. Try out your talk and see if the results are satisfactory. If not, you can go buy an external plug-in mike which will greatly improve the sound.
(4) You can plug the computer into a modern computer with a firewire cable (you may have to buy that), and transfer the raw footage over. On a Macintosh, you can use iMovie and iDVD to edit the footage, create your DVD and burn it.
Other than tapes, a firewire cable, and a mic, I would consider a case (so you can carry it and pack it in your luggage without concern), and an extra long-life rechargable battery.
Good luck!
Good answers so far, but not much about making your DVD. If you just want to take your edited footage and burn a playable DVD you can use free software – Windows Movie Maker for the editing and DVD Flick (there are others) to burn the DVD. If you want to do more sophisticated editing (e.g. picture in picture effects) or produce a DVD with decent menus you’ll need to buy a video editor. My preference is Sony’s Vegas Movie Studio, but there are others. I’d avoid Pinnacle Studio as it tends to be buggy (though it’s good when it works).
Apologies to the other guys – they did mention making DVDs!
1) MiniDV stands for Miniature Digital Video, which is stored on very small cassette tapes. They are reffered to as miniDV tapes, and you can purchase them at any local electronics or department store. Also, I have some offered by Amazon listed below .
2) It should come with the cables you need to charge the camera’s battery and probably those you need to show it on a TV. It will most likely also come with 1 standard battery. However, it will most likely not come with a case, the cable you would need to hook it up to a computer, or any tapes to record to. I have examples of each of those offered by Amazon listed below.
3) Yes, it absolutely will be able to record your lecture with full audio. It even has a remote so that you can control it while being recorded.
4) To create standard DVDs from what you have recorded you can hook it up to a computer and then create a DVD through the computer. The cable to do so (via FireWire, a.k.a. IEEE 1394) is listed below.