I was going to reserve this for a Retro Friday article, but as it turns out, the linear-based camcorder (as in one that uses videocassettes to store recorded video with) didn’t stop being produced all that long ago. In fact, some can still be bought new. For example, Sony’s Handycam series that specifically used Hi8 tapes lasted all the way up until 2008. And while true 2008 was four years ago, that’s certainly not enough time passed to consider something “retro”, so to speak.
Concerning videocassette formats, the two that were most-used (at least in the US) at the end of the linear-based consumer camcorder run were Hi8 (which included Digital8) and MiniDV. There were other formats out there (VHS-C lasted surprisingly a long time), but chances are you or anyone you knew with a camcorder for the time was using one of those two formats in the late 2000s.
There is only one reason to hang on to a linear-based camcorder these days, and that’s for playback of your old tapes. Some of you out there have many, many hours of footage on those old tapes that you never digitized, nor do you want to because the process would just take too long, and that I can understand. But as far as recording new video is concerned, yeah you should stop using linear completely and switch to tape-less non-linear.
Before I list the reasons why, here’s a few tips for those of you with boxes upon boxes of old video on tape:
Ironically, the video you have on tape will outlast any non-linear media you have. If the tape is stored proper in a cool, dry place, it can easily last 30 years and I’m not kidding. Heck, there are still VHS tapes used originally in the early 1980s that still play back fine now, three decades later. The footage may be a little “scratchy” due to some natural disintegration of the tape slack, but it still works. The problem of course when playing back old tapes is almost never the tape itself but rather the playback unit (usually due to worn out or dried-up belts). My suggestion is to get a blank tape, record 15 minutes of video on it, and label it “DECK TEST”. When you go to play back your tapes years later, pop that tape into the deck/camcorder first and play it to see if the deck/camcorder “eats” the tape or not. If not, you should be able to play back tapes safely. If the tape is “eaten”, well, you know not to use that unit for playback and should get another.. if you can even find one.
Anyway, back to the present.
Non-linear digital camcorders are cheap now, as in $40 cheap (not that I’d suggest buying that particular camcorder but it gives you an idea of how cheap it can get).
Non-linear storage for camcorders is also cheap. Gigs upon gigs of space with SD, SDHC and like cards is readily available, widely supported and is obviously the most convenient video storage ever made being it can fit in your shirt pocket with no problem at all and is very close to being literally featherweight.
Non-linear storage does not have the same life span as linear. At most you’ll get around 10 years out of an SD card before permanent read failures happen (or maybe before that if you use the card extensively and “run out of” file writes). However given that SD cards are so cheap, you can simply migrate the data from one card to another easily and on the cheap once every few years.
If you’re still using a linear-based camcorder, it’s time to throw it out or retire it if for no other reason than recording non-linear is now cheaper than linear. You couldn’t say that a year ago, but you can now because it’s accurate…
…and the fact new blank tapes are getting a bit difficult to come by in brick-and-mortar stores these days. Yeah, they’re still there, but not exactly well-stocked if you catch my meaning.
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