GearBits

MPEG Camcorders Don't (Yet) Make Sense

I've been intrigued by the notion of a camcorder that bypasses tape and records in MPEG format direct to a flash memory medium like Secure Digital cards. After doing a bit of research, I'm skeptical they are ready for prime time.

Panasonic and Sanyo/Fisher currently offer tapeless camcorders. The Panasonic D-Snap line offers both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 recording. The Panasonic SV-AV100 is the only one that offers TV-quality (640x480 or better) quality recording, as the others max out at a meager 320x240. The SV-AV100 captures really nice looking 704x480 MPEG-2 direct onto an SD card.

The Sanyo Xacti C1 (shown above), which will also be sold by Fisher, foregoes MPEG-2 and relies exclusively on MPEG-4. It offers full 30fps VGA resolution (640x480) recording in two different quality settings as well as some lower resolution video capture modes.

Both units are impressively small and packed with features. For example, both the Panasonic and the Sanyo weigh less than 6 oz. and feature optical zooms. The Panasonic has a large 2.5" LCD viewer while the Sanyo even sports a flash/fill light.

However, one needn't look very hard to figure out that there is currently a major flaw with both these units (and all similar devices): cost-effective removable storage capacity needed is simply not available at this point in time.

In its best resolution (704x480) recording in MPEG-2, the Panasonic SV-AV100 can record only 10 minutes of video on a 512 MB SD card. If you drop down to 480x352, you get double that, but you're now below what most would consider a reasonable resolution for TV-quality video. The largest SD cards available today are 1 GB at a cost of over $350. So, to have a capacity of just one hour of TV-quality video on the Panasonic SV-AV100, you'll have to shell out around $700 for the camera plus an additional $2,100 just for memory cards.

A similar situation exists for the Sanyo device. At its best quality VGA 30fps recording mode, the unit chews through 3mpbs. Using this video setting, you can fit 40 minutes on a 1 GB card. So, a 1 GB card and a 512 MB card would get you an hour of recording time. Total cost for this setup would be roughly $750 for the recorder (estimated as US pricing hasn't been announced yet) plus $500 for memory cards.

Either way, this is an awfully expensive way to capture video, not to mention the hassle of potentially having to swap out media every 10-20 minutes. If you want to record to MPEG-2 (the best quality option), we'll essentially have to wait until 4 GB SD cards are available to make it a reasonable endeavor. That's not going to happen for a couple of years at least (unless someone comes out with a unit that uses CompactFlash). 1 GB SD cards provide adequate capacity for 30fps VGA MPEG-4 video recording, but the high cost and slight quality hit make this a questionable compromise.

While recording straight to MPEG is something I look forward to doing in the future, I don't see it being a viable option for any large number of users for at least another year or so. In the meantime, a decent mini-DV camcorder can be yours for around $400. Not ideal, but if you gotta have a camcorder soon, don't wait around on direct-to-MPEG.