Digital video?

I would not say they are compatible in all players but if it plays +/- R it will play the same disk provided your player has the small dvd "indentation" on it's tray.

I know Sony makes a 5.1 camera so I assume there are other brands as well. I do know not all digital camcorders have a macro option so that is something to look for as well.

About the mini dvd discs, it all depends on what type. There are +r and -r, +rw and -rw, as well as dvd ram discs. It will depend on what dvd player you are using, however if it isnt a rw or ram disc, you will have to finalize it, just like burning a disc, before you can play it.

If you are going to go that way, go with a camera that will support ram discs. They are rewritable and they are random access memory discs, do you know what that is?

For those who dont here is a quick explination. Cds and dvds are like records, the information is recorded in tracks, like records. Does that make sense, hard to explain it without a visual. But anyway, if you scratch the disc, you are pretty much screwed becuase you wont be able to record anymore (rw) or to play it. But with ram discs, it will record in the next available spot if there is anything wrong with the disc, it will jump to an open area to record.

I hope that makes sense, I have always understood it, but I have trouble explainig it.

As for dvd playback, it can be tricky with all the different models cameras, players and discs and unfortunatly, sales people really just want to make a sale, and usually dont know if it will work or not with your set up. I have seen it and I would always say to people that there are so many factors it is really hard to be sure.

Rich, I think you really just need to decide what you want to use this camera for, and think about what you might want to use it for and decide from there. Do you think you would be playing the mini dvds a lot in your dvd player or is that something you might like to have just in case. Or are you usually going to upload the video and edit it first before finishing it for play back. Is this for family, business (corns), expos. Same with options, like 16:9 and 5.1 audio, they are good to have but are they essential to what you want to do? There is a lot to think about, do you know anyone with a camera that would let you borrow it to try it. It would be kinda like buying a cheep one untill you know what you want, but you dont have to pay for it!

Or, I know in Canada, Walmart has a really good return policy, if it is the same there, you could buy one and try it out and return it before you make a decision. Try out a few models, you might just have to go to different stores though...

This topic is still on the back burner with me, but I've got other things I need to get out of the way first. Taxes, breeding season, impending heart attack because of the first two..... that sort of thing.

But I was looking at some ads this morning in the Sunday paper and noted a digicam boasting 5.1 surround sound. Wha?? How in the world do you capture 5.1 surround signals with a single point source microphone?

I'm thinking I probably need to replace my old DVD reader in my PC, since I don't believe my old one can read the mini discs. And I assume I will need some sort of DVD editing software as well.

My wife has been talking about this video stuff because she wants to get some action video of her leopard geckos. Still photos just don't capture the antics they go through for her.

Pinnacle Studio 10 is what I use and it works great for me. It works well for analog movies or the pure digital media too. You can buy “Movie Packs” for additional special effects but for what I use it for I don’t need Hollywood</ST1 quality stuff.<O</O

what i have used previously for video is:
a mini dv camcorder hooked up to my computer via firewire in which i would capture/edit/export with adobe premiere.

now this all depends on how straight laced you are as a person, but adobe premiere is a 600 dollar program that is fairly simple and REALLY good you can download off of any filesharing servers for free. you can go the route of using a cheap 100 dollar program like windows movie maker, or pinnacle, but they try to make it so easy for people to use that it's actually harder than just using premiere which is based more around common sense than making it easy for people that don't know anything about technology to edit their videos.
so if i were to videotape a snake or gecko or something using the method i've used for the past 3-4 years i would:

-Videotape the snake with a miniDV camera
-plug one end of the firewire cable into my camera, plug the other end into the firewire port of my computer (if you don't have one you can buy one at compUSA for 20 bucks; it's a PCI card so if you've ever put one of those in, you just pop it in and let windows install it)
-open adobe premiere (or other editing program), "capture" clips that you want to use and name them appropriately. these are then saved onto your harddrive has FULL quality DV .avi files that are like 3-4mb PER SECOND! (for my uses of filming skateboarding videos, i've filled up two 120gb hard drives just with clips)
-import the full quality files into adobe premiere, export the file into a quicktime, or .mpeg or any other format for internet use.

now this is for best quality possible, if you just want small resolution clips that are ONLY for the web then you could possibly get a camera that records onto a digital format like the other guy was saying; but being the quality freak that i am thats just my two cents.

Been doing some reading of reviews of the various digicams available, and so far Sony is at the top of my list. The models I am looking the hardest at are the DVD403, DVD405, and the DVD505.

As for editing software, haven't looked too hard at that yet, but I have seen several people mention Ulead's VideoStudio9 and their DVD Movie Factory.

But in any event, I will need to replace my DVD reader in my computer with a DVD writer if I plan on doing any editing that I would want to write the results back to a DVD. Might be kind of interesting having some video shots of the babies hatching out instead of the regular stills I normally take.

One question I still don't have answered is the close focusing capabilities of these video cameras. In all the reviews I have been reading, no one has mentioned that capability. I guess I could run out to Circuit City and check there, but it's pretty tough getting out the door with breeding season in full swing.

hmmm....most have decent up close focusing for video cameras, i think in most cases video cameras will have shorter minimum focus distance than photo cameras. if your even 3 feet away and your zooming in 10x at a hatching i think you'll be fine.

p.s. a top of the line lite-on dvd writer that does anything will only cost you about 50 bucks from newegg.com and they are pretty easy to install.

Well with close-ups, "working distance" is an important consideration. For instance, my 60mm micro lens for my regular camera CAN do close ups for small subjects, but in order to fill the screen with a baby snake, the working distance is VERY close. In some cases, TOO close. On the other side of the spectrum, I could use my 200mm micro lens, but then my working distance is too far away unless I only want the head of the baby snake to fill the screen. So what I have found to be perfect, is my 105mm micro. Now when I want close ups of adults, the 60mm is my lens of choice. Or with an interesting bug, then the 200mm fits the bill. With a fixed lens on a digicam, I'm just not sure what sort of leeway I will have on my subject matter at close ranges.

BTW, a 3 foot working distance would be too far away for animals because one hand needs to be working the camera and the other hand needs to be trying to keep the snake where he belongs.

I haven't priced the r/w DVD players recently nor checked on specs of any of them. Just one more aspect of this that I need to look into sooner or later. I probably should have picked a better time of year, however. The critters have finally figured out it is breeding season......

i really can't give you an exact working distance though, im not sure if it's 3 feet that was just an estimate. on my canon minidv i can zoom in about halfway (9x) from about 1-1.5 feet away. the farther you are from the subject,the more you can zoom before it gets out of focus.

Well I went by Best Buys yesterday and they had a special sale on a model I was looking at reviews on. The Sony model DVD403. I've been playing around with it today to try to get my feet wet. Still have a LOT to learn. There are about a dozen different DVD formats (DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, etc...), some of which may work in my home theater DVD player, and some of which may work in the new DVD reader/burner I just bought. Even in the multiple formats, there are different ways you can use some of the formats that apparently make a big difference in how you can use them afterwards. On top of that my home DVD player says it can read particular DVDs that are "finalized" via a Panasonic format (I guess since the reader is a Panasonic model) which makes me wonder if it will ever be able to read these Sony finalized disks.

Something tells me that this might not become my cup of tea when things are said and done....... More later....