I think it would be interesting to find out how do miniDV camcorders compare to digital cameras.

New video cameras these days have a photo mode that takes still images and usually includes about 6 seconds of audio. They claim each miniDV tape can record about 500 still images at about 640x480. You could probably go on holiday and take just one miniDV tape instead of a dozen rolls of film.

That brings me to my next point. Wouldn't it be nice if we could combine mega pixel digital cameras with miniDV video recording technology? Imagine, to be able to record 100 high resolution SVGA or XGA still photos on a single miniDV tape and also have an option to take mpeg video! Yeah!

-- Jen Sen Teo (jteo@hotmail.com), November 05, 1998

Answers

Boy..do I ever agree with you! My brother spent $1300 on a digital camcorder and then went out later and got a mega pixel digi camera. He simply thought the pics would be great..but at 640x480..they are only good for sending via email. But yeah..why can't they take much better pics..it seems the technology is there. He even printed many out which compared to the output from my mega pixel cam..his looked pretty bad. So for now, the handiness of taking stills with a digicamcorder is essentially worthless. Maybe they will get this worked out someday.

-- Mike Valley (cpanthers@email.com), November 05, 1998.

There is a sony digital digital camcorder recently released which has the highest pixel number. I think the model is pc100. It has video in and video out ports.you should be able to convert old video tapes in to digital format. you can use it to take still photoes and store it on the memory stick and download later on to a pc.Check the sony web site.

-- TAS prasad (prasad@indigo.ie), February 28, 2000.