Thinking about having some online videos professionally produced? It can be confusing trying to figure out which format will work best for your needs. Here’s some helpful information on the most popular professional digital video camera formats:

DV (Digital Video): A good, but lower quality, standard definition format used with both prosumer and professional cameras. You get a lot of bang for your buck, but don’t think you’ll get the same image quality using your handheld camcorder as you will with a full or medium sized camera that has a pro lens. These cameras shoot to MiniDV (or DVC) tapes and are very popular in the Internet video world.

Digi-Beta (Digital Betacam): This format is the big brother of long-time industry standard, Beta SP which is still used by many television news stations that haven’t moved up yet fully to HD. Great picture quality and color – a noticeable difference from DV.

DVCPro & DVCPro50: DVCPro is a medium quality format that is used with professional Panasonic cameras. This format is popular and used by lots of TV news stations and production companies. These cameras can shoot to DVCPro videotape or hard disks. Panasonic also offers DVCPro50 which is a very high quality standard definition format that creates a gorgeous picture.

DVCam: A small step up from DV – similar to DVCPro but used with Sony camera products.

HDV: This is a high definition format that records on DV cassette tapes and hard disks. Many prosumer Sony cameras use HDV and they can be a solid value compared to more expensive HD cameras. The video has great quality, but is compressed more and has a lesser quality picture than higher end HD formats.

HD: High Definition is the highest quality digital video format available. There are three leading HD camera formats that include DVCPro100, XDCAM HD and AVCHD that are all spectacular. HD cameras can shoot at 1920 x 1080 pixels (full HD) which may be overkill for some online video purposes that require much smaller video sizes.

Before selecting a video production company, make sure they can shoot with the camera format you need and remember no video will look professional without proper lighting and sound.

Peter Fitzpatrick is the Founder/Executive Producer of RippleKey LLC – Creative Media & Productions (www.ripplekey.com).

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