DVCAM

Small, soft, fast, cheap, DV cameras along with various options to edit your stuff.

No one can argue the price to image quality ratio is excellent.

Tape stock is cheap and small, you could have a box of 5 in your pocket and you would not feel it.

Shooting abroad

Lots of production people take up to 100 kg’s of equipment to the airport and we always panic about the Carnet, who has it, who was meant to keep hold of it…When you travel with a DV rig it’s small, seen as domestic and you are a tourist, no paperwork, no problem.

DV Texture

DV has it’s own feel and texture which a lot of users and viewers enjoy.

The fly on the wall documentaries we see on TV gives the viewer a feeling of intimacy with the subject; this is not so easy with the larger, higher quality camera.

People seem to respond to the size of the cameras in different ways.

16:9

16:9 (1:177) has 25% more picture area, this is not so in the case of Sony DV cameras up to the DSR PD150 P.

With the internal 16:9 the ratio is still anamorphic 1:177.

Anamorphic lens
Pros: good resolution with the anamorphic lens.
Cons: flare, can’t get very close focus, can't use wide angle lens, can't see your framing.

Internal switching 16:9
Pros: can see framing in letterbox, can use wide angle lens, can get very close focus, and flare not an issue.
Cons: the resolution not so good, but not bad enough to panic about.

DV tapes are the same as DVCAM tapes, some have a better grade. (We recommend SONY)

If you put a DV tape into a DVCAM recorder or Camera the device will record DVCAM. The same goes for putting DVCAM tape into a DV camera you will record DV.

The difference is: DV record speed is approximately 18mm per second and DVCAM is 28mm per second, this means a 60min DV tape runs 40min in DVCAM mode and a 40min DVCAM tape runs 60min in DV mode.

Although longer tapes are available we do not recommend them.

Visuals Group Technical Department.