Professional camcorder hire

Professional camcorder rental is becoming more and more popular.  Why? Simply, because technology is moving a such a pace, some clients feel it necessary to ensure that they in-turn offer their own clients the latest equipment available.

The first thing to decide is whether you wish to hire a Standard Definition or High Definition camcorder.  We would always recommend hiring a High Definition camcorder simply because by recording in HD, you are ensuring that, when a cost effective HD playing mechanism becomes more widespread (and this is already happening with BluRay), you will have already shot the original footage in HD. If this all sounds too much of a step, nearly all of the camcorders can shoot in SD as well.  It is also possible to 'downconvert' the footage when playing out of several of the camcorders, allowing you to record in HD but still feed an SD signal to your editing suite.  More and more editing systems now have support for HD (either HDV or AVCHD) so do check.

Which format is right for me?

Below you will find an explantion on the different formats and which is most probably best for you. When deciding on your accessories, click on the 'Accessories' tab on the detailed model page and this will give just the accessories that work with that camcorder - simple! As always, if you have any questions, please do feel free to contact us either by email or by phone.

DV/DVCAM

Quickly dealing with Standard Definition, we have only one professional format for hire - DV/DVCAM. This format has been around for a long time now and has proved itself very reliable. The footage is recorded onto a Mini DV tape that typically lasts 63 minutes (longer 80 minute tapes are available). This footage is then transferred to your computer for editing via a Firewire cable. It is therefore important to make sure that you have a Firewire connection on your computer (either 4 or 6 pin). Demand for these cameras is falling simply because most people now choose to record footage in HD and even those that wish to record in SD hire an HD camcorder due to their newer and more advanced imaging chips.

HDV

The HDV format first came onto the scene in September 2004 with the release of the Sony HDR-FX1.  Since then, whilst the capabilites and performance of the new models has dramatically improved, the format remains the same as it was then.  HDV is a tried and tested format and is supported by a very large number of editing systems and computer platforms.  Recording onto the same Mini DV tapes as DV/DVCAM, it offers an incredibly cost effective form of recording.  People will say it is not full HD which is correct - HDV records at 1440x1080 and full HD is 1920x1080.  For the most part, playback methods have not really been good enough to truly detect a difference - it is more down to the quality of the shot in terms of colours and how the camera handles contrast that determines a good shot rather than the absolute number of pixels.

With the advent of solid state camcorders, the HDV format was looking somewhat outdated and in late 2007, Sony released its hybrid recording system. This gives you the best of both worlds. You can record onto both tape and Compact Flash card simulataneously - the tape offers you the most cost effective form of archival and recording onto a solid state card ensures the quickest possible form of transfer for footage.  Both the Sony HVR-S270E and Sony HVR-Z7E come with this facility as standard.  The other camcorders can use the Sony HVR-MRC1K recorder as an option.

In our opinion, HDV is still the best format for most as it is cost effective and very flexible.

NXCAM - AVCHD

Sony and Panasonic jointly developed this format and since its inception in 2006, most HD consumer camcorders have used it.  How does it differ from HDV?  Well for a start it is true HD - so records in 1920x1080 rather than the 1440x1080 of HDV - this is not truly significant at the lower end of the market as, to be honest,  the quality of the imaging chip and lens have more effect on the overall footage.  No firewire cables are needed as all footage is transferred to computer by either USB cable from the camera or using a card reader attached to your computer.

Sony's first professional AVCHD camera was the Sony HVX-MCR1P HD minicam, launched at the beginning of 2009.  Towards the end of that year, Sony announced the launch of their new professional AVCHD format called NXCAM.  The first camera to join that family was the Sony HXR-NX5E.  Very similar to the Sony HVR-Z5E HDV camera, the HVR-NX5E allows you to record onto either Memory Stick Duo or SDHC card.  The camera also allows you to record onto a 128gb Flash Drive.

What does all this mean?  Put simply, this is a sureproof tried and tested solid state format.  The HVR-NX5E allows simultaneous recording onto both card and flash drive, offering some comfort to those who are somewhat new to solid state recording and are unsure about placing their faith in a small bit of plastic!

There are however some things to point out with this format.  Anyone who has tried to edit with it will have found that due to the complex compression, AVCHD footage is very processor hungry.  Most professional editing suites will convert the footage to their native HD format to speed up the editing process.  This rather counters the whole advantage of speedy file transfer but it is worth nothing that as computers get quicker, this problem will become less and less evident.  AVCHD does have another advantage in that the format is playable on Playstation 3 consoles and Windows 7 will play all files (though, again depending on your processor, you may find playback is slow).

XDCAM EX

XDCAM EX was introduced late 2007 with the launch of the Sony PMW-EX1. It used a similar recording profile to the professional XDCAM HD format but recording onto SxS memory cards rather than professional discs.  Two recording modes are available - SP, which is similar in quality to HDV or HQ, full HD and better quality.   Footage is recorded onto cards (all cameras have two card slots which are hotswappable i.e you can swap cards over whilst still recording).  Originally Sony offered just SxS Pro cards - whilst still expensive compared to cheaper media, they have proved exceptionally robust and reliable.  We supply 16gb of SxS media with all XDCAM EX cameras we hire.  More recently, you have been able to use SDHC cards with an adaptor.  Whilst not so full proof, this has made using XDCAM EX cameras a great deal more accessible for many purely on a cost basis.

So what about the cameras themselves? Put simply, they are excellent.  Sony sold more XDCAM EX cameras in 2009 than any other format for very good reason.  These cameras offer quite incredible quality for the money.  The imaging chips are 1/2 inch rather than the 1/3 inch ones found on HDV and NXCAM.  If you are after broadcast quality, look no further.

So how do you get the footage off the cameras? As standard, we supply our XDCAM EX equipment with a USB card reader.  Transferring the footage is a simple process.  You will first need to install the device drivers for the card reader and Sony's Clip Browser software.  These can be found on the supplied CD (or you can download them off Sony's website).  The Clip Browser software will then allow you to copy locally all of the footage off the cards.  This can then be converted into various industry standard formats to take into your editing system.  If you have Final Cut Pro, Sony produce a plug-in which allows you to import the footage directly.