Cable Forum - View Single Post

Stuart · 16-09-2005, 20:25

1) Not so much now (although they are more expensive.

2) Depends. A decent, medium sized digital camera will probably have a better lens, optics & CCD (the device the actually records the image - similar to film) than a small camcorder. The CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) will also be optimised for still images. A CCD designed for video will be optimised for speed rather than image resolution. Admittedly, this last bit is not as important now (it's cheaper to manufacture one type of CCD than two).

3) As you have found out, an image from a digital camcorder is worse than than that from a still camera. The main reson is the resolution. Digital camcorders typically operate at 720x576 (about .5 megapixel) pixels. Newer camcorders can go up to about 2 Megapixels for stills, where as reasonable Digital Still cameras start at 3 Megapixels and go up to about 7.

Although, TBH, if you are just taking snaps (family holidays, that sort of thing), a camcorder with 2 Megapixel still photos should be more than good enough.

16-09-2005, 20:25	#3
Stuart - Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Somewhere Services: Virgin for TV and Internet, BT for phone Posts: 26,546	Re: Using a camcorder as a digital camera 1) Not so much now (although they are more expensive. 2) Depends. A decent, medium sized digital camera will probably have a better lens, optics & CCD (the device the actually records the image - similar to film) than a small camcorder. The CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) will also be optimised for still images. A CCD designed for video will be optimised for speed rather than image resolution. Admittedly, this last bit is not as important now (it's cheaper to manufacture one type of CCD than two). 3) As you have found out, an image from a digital camcorder is worse than than that from a still camera. The main reson is the resolution. Digital camcorders typically operate at 720x576 (about .5 megapixel) pixels. Newer camcorders can go up to about 2 Megapixels for stills, where as reasonable Digital Still cameras start at 3 Megapixels and go up to about 7. Although, TBH, if you are just taking snaps (family holidays, that sort of thing), a camcorder with 2 Megapixel still photos should be more than good enough.