Updated: 12/23/2007

Acquisition Formats

With so-called consumer-type (composite, color-under) VCRs such as VHS and 8mm video there is a significant loss in quality when the tapes have to be copied -- a necessary step when doing editing and special effects.

This has greatly limited the use of these machines in professional video. Even the improved S-VHS and Hi8 formats had this problem, although not to the same degree.

With the introduction of digital camcorders, the quality problem was greatly reduced; however, with consumer-grade camcorders the original recording is still made with a compressed format, which means that there is a significant loss of quality.

There is a way around this shortcoming -- especially with analog recordings. It's not a cure-all, but it will improve video quality during postproduction.

It's possible to use a consumer format to do the original taping and then immediately bump up (dub) the recording to a higher-quality format for subsequent postproduction work. When these formats are used in this way they are referred to as acquisition formats. Some network "reality shows" that record events such as ER episodes and police chases regularly do this.

Although the results are not as good as starting out with broadcast-quality professional digital format, this procedure offers the advantages of being able to use compact, lightweight and comparatively inexpensive equipment in applications such as news and documentary work.

Digital Video Cassette

The best of the new DVC camcorders rivals the quality of most professional analog camcorders selling for more than ten times as much -- not to mention being ten times larger and weighing ten times as much.

When video from these digital cassettes is transferred to a high-end professional digital format, the only limit on quality through the successive editing phases is the initial quality of the camera image.

In some recent experiments images from some of the best digital camcorders have been processed with image enhancement and transferred to 35mm film using the latest electron beam recording techniques. According to observers, under optimal conditions the results rival original 35mm production.

A number of feature-length "films" have already been produced with one of these formats. Since using this approach means that the below-the-line production budget can be cut to a fraction of the cost of a normal feature film, this approach has gotten attention from film producers who have their eyes focused squarely on the bottom line.

Even so, for some time most producers will be quite reluctant to abandon film with its 100-plus year artistic tradition and thousands of specialized support companies -- at least until they are forced to by economic considerations. (As we note elsewhere, however, many independent feature films are now being done with digital video equipment.)

Expendable Equipment

In covering high-risk, foreign news assignments the new digital camcorders, along with S-VHS and Hi8 equipment, can be considered "expendable.'' If this equipment is confiscated, badly damaged, or has to be left behind, there is no great financial loss. (That's for networks, not for schools of broadcasting!)

So, the days are now gone when it was necessary to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment in order to produce a professional-quality production.

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