So it turns out that that you want to embark on documenting whatever in moving images for the first time, but how do you go about selecting the camera? Writing a really elaborate answer would require an entire book, so here I’ll try to give you a very brief version.
To begin with, let’s assume that what you are looking for is a small, portable, video camera – something suitable to have with you on the vacation as well as your kid’s next soccer game. Let’s also assume that, instead of messing with discs or tapes something that will record to a physical memory on the device itself, and allow for transferring this to external memory options if you so desire. In the name of maximum compatibility you don’t want something that you will need a specific program for using on your computer. Today we want to plug right into our computer, and use the material in the way we want.
These demands can be adequately met by any number of consumer friendly cameras, and your choice will be largely dependent on the quality you desire for your finished movie project. For projects shot in low resolution, for ordinary TV’s, Ipods or the Web, something like one of those new flip video cameras would serve nicely. But Then, if you desire Full HD picture quality for displaying on your brand new flat screen, you will probably want to go for a camera recording in the Avchd file format. This means you also need avchd compatible video editing software, which is now widely available.
High Definition Becomes the Standard
The term high definition can actually be said to described many different television systems originating from the late 1930s. Going back all the way to the British 240 line and 405 line black-and-white systems introduced in 1936, and including the American 525-line NTSC system established in 1941. These systems where defined “high definition” compared to even earlier models and of course have nothing to do with what we mean by high definition today.
Even So, the broad term high defintion can mean many different formats, riding on the context.
Essentially, high definition television is the height of human television invention, that has surfaced so far. It incorporates the 16:9 aspect ratio, that has long been used in movie theaters, that is standard on all new television screens. The resolution is multiplied up to five times from ordinary (SD) resolution, which of course is HD’s biggest selling point. Simply put – high definition is the best available picture on a television. Nevertheless, there are three separate adaptations of it: 720p, 1080i and 1080p. Only the last mention one is “full hd” and is what new blu-ray movies are offered in.
The format to work with avchd video editing, will most often be 1080i. Additional info on avchd video editing software is on hand here.
