Q&A: whats the difference between a consumer video camera and a professional video camera?

Whats the difference between a consumer record camera like the sony trv models and the professional sony cameras?

Answer by Earl D
One is made by the home electronics division in China, calculated by the Home Electronics division in Japan.

The professional camera is calculated and made IN JAPAN by the Professional Electronics division.

The chips are larger. The body is made of cast aluminum not plastic, the lenses are interchangable, there is generally no viewfinder or LCD screen (it is expected you will run a Textronic or Trinitron monitor) but there is an optical through the lense viewer. There are 3 chips not just one and they are generally 1/3 of an inch in size not 1/4 or 1/6th as in consumer cameras. It includes color dot and bar generators. It will connect to genlock and time code gear. It uses less record compression and runs any DV-CAM tape at twice the speed of home camcorders or Betamax (Betacam SP) tape. It delivers 600 – 800 lines of horizontal resolution. You can align or exchange the intensity for RGB. It has different output and input connectors not found on home units. I has a 1 year warranty. It is highly repairable. It generally does NOT come with a microphone but includes an XLR input and output for audio connection from any Low Z (150 ohm) mic or maybe professional line level audio (+3 DBV) for wireless mics. SOME DV-CAM models can also play home Mini DV-C tapes with an adapter, provided it offers slow and quick speeds. It costs from $ 7,500 and up.

In prices over $ 12,000 you can generally find cameras using the 4-2-2 sampling mode (EFP) instead of the 4-1-1 mode of home and news (ENG) cameras.

In prices over $ 25,000 you can find persons that use both 4-4-4 and 4-2-2 sampling and don’t do any compression to the record (DV CAM 100).

Sampling deals with color to brightness. Home and ENG (low priced professional) cameras sample color for one out of four pixels (4-1-1), while broadcast studio and EFP (electronic field production) cameras sample 2 pixels (4-2-2) or the overkill color of each pixel (4-4-4).

Home cameras generally compress 7:1 or greater. ENG compresses 5:1 or greater. EFP compresses in the 3:1 or 1:1 range (no compression, full 4-4-4 data from each pixel).

Basially reckon of RAW (TIFF or Bit Map) storage vs JPEG/MPEG compressed files.

Finally, most cameras priced over $ 9,000 offer a variety of speed settings, including 24/25 FPS, 29.95, i and p (interlaced and progressive) and can even offer variable speeds from 8 FPS to 100 FPS.

Answer by Reality check
Pro cameras have better lenses, microphones and chips, more specific controls and readouts, and relations for additional pro gear. They are also larger, which gives a more professional look, and helps with stabilization.

Answer by digital camera tech
Typically quality. Also they may add features that are only really vital to ‘professionals’.
The market is getting wierd tho with everyone wanting top-quality stuff – everyone is a ‘professional’ now-a-days.

Answer by evilgenius4930
Earl D said a lot of stuff, and some of it was right, but let me add to his response.

1/3 inch chips are considered pro, but they’re certainly not the largest size you can get. 1/2 inch chips, 2/3 inch chips and even 35mm sized chips are all available, even if they probably wouldnt be in what we reckon of as a digital record camera, but instead in studio cameras, or digital cinema cameras. Also, newer consumer HD cams have 1/3 inch chips as well. Also, earl D mentioned 3 chip cameras. Yes that does separate the pros from the wannabes (to some extent), but some newer cameras are starting to get away from the 3 chip scheme and just stick with 1 chip. And again, some consumer cameras have 3 chips as well. So in the ancient days, 3 is better than 1. Now, that still applies, but maybe not all the time. And yes, pro’s have interchangeable lenses, but not necessarily all pro cams. So I reckon the real differences between consumer and pro cams is that pros offer better quality. Seems obvious doesnt it? But how? Pros offer better quality with less compression, better lenses, better chips, and better control. So not necessarily more, but better. For example, a pro camera like the HVX200 uses less compression (DVCPRO HD) than consumer cams (HDV), uses a shorter 10x lens but with better quality Leica optics, it still uses 1/3 inch chips, but with less pixels packed onto each of its 3 chips to still make full HD quality with less than .5 MP on each of its sensors, and allows better control by the option of variable frame tariff, manual features, picture adjustments, etc. Hope this helps!

Answer by playstationportableisfun
the amount of CCD chips, craftsmanship

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taken by John Dedzej

On FL Studio, it always sounds like amateur work, no matter how excellent the beat is.

I was wondering how ACID was compared to FL Studio?

Answer by Lord-Quas (blaq-ego)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKzO_F75bYo

Not a fantastic beat, but should give you an thought of what it sounds like.

vvv He had a very detailed and realistic answer.

Answer by The Public Rival
I use both programs a lot so I’m very familiar with both.

It sounds like amateur work because you’re working with amateur sounds or have a poor quality sound card in your computer. FL Studio is a tool, like a shovel. The dirt it comes with is crap. You have to add your own quality dirt or it’s a useless tool and you’re just digging around in crap. Fl Studio is just an interface to control things. I wouldn’t bother using the instruments or fx in it. They sound like ice cream truck music. You need to buy sounds elsewhere and import them into FL Studio. Just use FL Studio to arrange the sounds you get elsewhere. Native Instruments is the most well loved brand, but they are expensive.

Acid Pro is not excellent for making beats. It’s excellent for recording things. It’s a tool, just like FL Studio. FL Studio is a better tool because it lets you work with one-hit sounds. Acid Pro is a loop based program, so it’s based around cutting up loops and arranging them. FL Studio is much better for making beats and much simpler. Acid Pro is only better when it comes to recording words or remixing songs (like combining an a capella with an instrumental and lining them up and all that).

It’s a misconception that FL Studio is for amateurs because it’s cheap. I took courses in Pro Tools and have a Pro Tools console that cost me $ 2,500. When I first got started with Pro Tools, I thought “this is what I need to get that professional sound”. It was dumb of me to assume that a larger price tag earnings more professional sound. Then I realized that it’s fantastic for recording instruments and words because it comes with built in preamps and Reason is a pretty excellent program (Pro Tools comes with Reason), but when it comes to beat making, I prefer Fl Studio over Pro Tools. Pro Tools doesn’t offer anything more professional. It’s just a matter of preference when it comes to organizing music(arranging sounds). Fl Studio is simpler to use, and that doesn’t make it amateur, that makes it preferable because a producer doesn’t want to waste too much time learning their way around a program.

Moral of my way-too-long answer:
The sounds and fx you place into the programs matter, not the programs themselves. I have sound kits from HotSamplez. If I place a guitar into Acid Pro, or place that same guitar into FL Studio, it will sound the same in any program. But both programs allow me different ways to manipulate that sound and cut it up and go it around. FL Studio is better in my opinion.

Answer by audioloops
Just download the demos and compare for yourself:
http://www.flstudio.com
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/trials/acidpro

The Public Rival is right though, it’s all about how you use these tools, not the sounds they come with. There’s also a small business called ear for music / talent, that helps too.

I prefer FL Studio (Producer Edition). It’s a very capable software and I really prefer it over some additional more expensive software I also have (Ableton Live).

For anyone interested in getting FL Studio, you can get 10% money off on your first order from image-line with this promo link for new customers: https://support.image-line.com/jshop/shop.php?offer=Default&promo=BACJBAA468

Just make sure you get the right version. The demo is basically the same as the Producer Edition, except for some of the generators like Sytrus and Directwave that are only available in the Signature Bundle. You can compare the editions here: http://flstudio.image-line.com/documents/editions.html

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