Portable Camcorders

The department owns two models/types of camcorders. The first is the Ikegami HC-400W camera with Panasonic DVCPro50 VCR backend. The department owns three of these units and they are refered to as the Red, Blue and Green units. Each camcorder has an accompanying Porta Brace grip bag with approapriately color-coded audio and grip accessories. The Ikegami professional camcorders are capable of shooting in 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios, and can record in DVCPro25 or DVCPro50 mode. The 25 and the 50 refer to Mbps (Megabits per second) of digital data and the 50 Mbps records at twice the tape speed of 25 Mbps, thus halving the effective length of the field tapes that are used.

The second type of camcorder is a prosumer-grade 3-CCD camcorder that records in DV or DVCAM format. The department has two Sony PD-100s, three Sony PD-150s, one Sony PD-170, and two Panasonic DVX-100As. These 3-chip DVCam camcorders are capable of high quality pictures under ideal conditions. All have automatic focus, white-balance, and exposure...but for best results it is a good idea to learn to use the manual settings. All have a flip-out color LCD screen that can be very helpful in certain conditions. The Sony cameras can be used with either mini DV or DVCam tape stock and can shoot in either mode. Like with the DVCPro25/50 choice described above, shooting in the DVCam mode means slightly faster tape speed, or less record time from the tape. A 60 minure DV tape will last for approximately 42 minutes in DVCam mode.

More information about the Ikegami HC-400W can be found at their web site: