Is my JVC good enough for this transfer

August 28, 2006 9:43 AM

I have a couple of hours of miniDV footage shot on a Canon XL2. The XL2 was borrowed and I no longer have access to it. I'm contemplating a transfer of the precious footage to my hard drive by way of an old JVC Micropocket camera (using FireWire). Will I lose quality?

I know the Micropocket is "consumer" whereas the XL2 is "semi-pro". I'm just wondering: when it comes to simply transfering video to the hard drive, is there a difference between the two?

So... should I rent a miniDV deck for this transfer, like a Sony DSR-25 for instance (that goes for 120$ a day at a store nearby)?

posted by amusem to technology (6 comments total)

You can use any DV camera. The format is the same, and you won't lose any quality. The camera is simply dumping the contents of the tape through the firewire port.

For safety, use a cleaning tape first, just in case the head is dirty.
posted by Mwongozi at 9:44 AM on August 28, 2006

Wow, thanks a bunch. I was kind of hoping to get this answer!
posted by amusem at 10:02 AM on August 28, 2006

Totally. The DV format is the same on miniDV. You'd only have a (possible) headache with a tape recorded in a higher end sony camera. That could be recorded as DVCam. But you're fine.
posted by filmgeek at 11:36 AM on August 28, 2006

I hope it was shot in SP mode. If it was LP, you're gonna want to use the same exact camera that recorded it to play it back for capture. Otherwise, you're cool.
posted by evil holiday magic at 12:32 PM on August 28, 2006

Even DVCAM will play back in most standard MiniDV cameras (although not all).

But yeah, DV is DV is DV - it's just moving bits from tape down a wire. As long as the heads are aligned and clean you have no problems.
posted by sycophant at 9:53 PM on August 29, 2006

Even DVCAM will play back in most standard MiniDV cameras (although not all).

I can confirm the not all part of this. I tried to retrieve some DVCAM footage using a Canon ZR40. The picture was fine, but the sound was a disaster.
posted by evil holiday magic at 2:06 PM on August 30, 2006