The more popular units are the DSR-PDX10P DSR-PD150P and the
DSR-570WSPL

DVCAM is a digital broadcast format, often used for TV news. DVCAM pictures are sharp and vivid, almost as good as Digibeta, however DVCAM is not so good if you want to add a lot of special effects or layers of pictures.

DVCAM is fast becoming a replacement for the older analogue format called BetacamSP (not to be confused with Digital Betacam).

DVCAM is becoming the standard format for television news. DVCAM is based on the consumer miniDV format. It was introduced by Sony as a low cost but high quality format for use in the corporate and industrial sector, however over the last couple of years it has become accepted for TV news and documentaries.

There are a wide range of cameras small and large. The larger full size professional cameras produce excellent pictures, take industry standard lenses and have the full range of manual controls needed for TV production.

Full size cameras can record on tapes that last up to 3 hours! The smaller DVCAM camcorders are similar to domestic models, they are good for un-obtrusive filming and generally produce good results, however the lack of interchangeable lenses and proper manual controls limits their performance and the end results can be a little unpredictable.

DVCAM is a low cost digital tape format that can be used for many types of TV and video production. It is ideally suited to corporate and low budget productions. It is a high quality format good enough for broadcast television and is often used for television news gathering. One of the formats main advantages is that the footage can be easily and cheaply transferred to a computer for editing with no loss of quality. There is a lot of confusion surrounding this format because many people use the term "DVCAM" in reference to the many small "palmcorder" type cameras that are based on consumer models.

These "palmcorder" units do produce reasonable quality images but are very different to the true professional "full size" DVCAM camcorders that are also available.

DVCAM is a format, not a type of camera, so be careful if you hire a "DVCAM" because you just don't know what you are going to get, instead specify the type of camera you need i.e. a palmcorder or full size unit.