If price is of no concern, is it possible to get just as good of quality from a digital camcorder still image as with a digital camera? I have a need for high quality still architectural images but would also like the versatility of a video system. Does it make sense to invest in a digital camcorder to serve both purposes or would I be better off having a dedicated digital camera for still images?

-- Harrison French (harrison@arkmola.net), November 29, 1998

Answers

Unfortunately digital camcorders do not have good still output. It is equal to 640x480 reso on a digital camera. And since most newer digi cams have 1280x960(or more) reso..u are easily better off with a good camera. My brother went through that..he purchased a JVC digi camcorder and we then compared stills to my Ricoh rdc-4200 pics...big difference! You would think a digital camcorder would be much better at stills though. Good luck!

-- Mike Valley (cpanthers@email.com), November 29, 1998.

Maximum resolution of the camcorders is 640x480, but depending on your targeted output (web?) this may be all you need.

Two great advantages of the digital camcorders over digital cameras are: 1) Many more pictures can be stored in the camera itself (up to 30 per second for the length of the tape); and, 2) Many now have a FireWire connection, so you can download the images from the camera to the computer at 400Mb per second, which obviously can save a huge amount of time. -Bill

-- Bill Watson (bwatson@mindspring.com), November 30, 1998.