How to Watch Your Old Tapes and Still Go Digital
One of the key issues with adopting any new technology is figuring out what to do with your existing media. One way to handle it is to take advantage of backwards compatibility.
What Formats Could It Play?
The Digital8 format was the third and last of Sony's 8 mm video formats to reach the market. Although it used the same tapes as the earlier formats, it recorded in a totally different fashion. The first two formats were entirely analog, with only the third taking advantage of digital technology:
- Video8: The original analog format, it offered similar picture quality to VHS, recording at 240-line resolution with mono audio.
- Hi8: A move to metal oxide tape allowed for more bandwidth and better resolution on the same size cassette. Hi8 camcorders could play Video8 tapes but the reverse wasn't possible.
- Digital8: Digital8 tapes were the same as Hi8 tapes but used a different recording format. While a Digital8 camcorder could play both earlier formats, once a tape recorded digitally, it could not play in any earlier system.
What About Digital8 Camcorders?
Choosing the right Sony Digital8 camcorder is a matter of matching the available features with your needs, just like with any camcorder or digital camera. Many models featured both a viewfinder and a swing-out screen, so you could watch your footage with both eyes. Entry-level camcorders offered a black and white viewfinder, while more advanced models let you preview your footage in color as well as recording it. With backwards compatibility out of the way, here are a few features to consider when looking through Sony Digital8 models:
- Zoom: Many models offer both optical zoom and an even greater level of digital zoom. It's a great feature for filming nature.
- NightShot: Some Digital-8 cameras also offered NightShot, a feature that used two infrared LEDs to enable filming in complete darkness. The IR mode does have a bit of a green tint, but it definitely extends the camera functionality.
- Printing: Models like the TRV830 can not only take still images, it can also print out its own pictures as the camcorder has a color printer built into the body.
Using Camcorders
The shift to digital provided a number of additional capabilities when compared to its analog predecessors, especially when you consider that the new machine not only used the same kind of tapes as its predecessors but could also play back your existing library. One tradeoff to consider was tape use. The same videocassette that was good for two hours of analog video was only able to store one hour of digital video due to the increased bandwidth requirements.
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