Memory Stick Cameras

Memory Stick Cameras are tapeless camcorders that record the videos on removable memory sticks. This is similar to the Hard Disk Cameras in that most consumer-level tapeless camcorders use MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 as encoding formats.

Video can be moved from the Memory stick just like copying a file from a CD to your computer. No need to capture the video real time like the tape.

The down side of memory stick cameras is when the memory stick is full there is no more recording unless you delete or copy files off to a computer. It is possible to carry multiple memory sticks but these are much more expensive than carrying extra miniDV tapes. This leads to the other down side of memory stick cameras which is archiving. Memory sticks are too expensive to pull out of the camera and store on the shelf. Like the Hard Disk Cameras some of these ship with an attachable DVD burner to burn your memories out but that is a second step.

Also see Hard Disk Cameras