# Digital 8mm and camcorder photo mode **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 31, 2000, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-8mm-and-camcorder-photo-mode/9590 "2000-03-31T20:16:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2000, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-8mm-and-camcorder-photo-mode/9590/1 "2000-03-31T20:16:00Z")
My Hi8 Sony is getting a bit long in the tooth so I’ll eventually want to replace it with a digital camcorder, possibly the Digital 8 format for backward compatibility. I occasionally do video captures with a Snappy device but the results are sometimes not that great, especially with motion in the scene. What’s the SD on the photo mode that some digital camcorders have? Does it take a single, non interlaced frame? ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2000, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-8mm-and-camcorder-photo-mode/9590/2 "2000-04-01T00:45:00Z")
What’s with digital 8 being backward compatible? Ive seen a Digital 8 cassette & its way smaller than a 8mm cassette, which woldn’t fit in a digital 8 camera… ---
**Author:** ![Kilgore\_Trout\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6de8d8/32.png) [@Kilgore\_Trout\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilgore_Trout_1)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2000, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-8mm-and-camcorder-photo-mode/9590/3 "2000-04-01T00:56:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by handy: > **What’s with digital 8 being backward compatible? Ive seen a Digital 8 cassette & its way smaller than a 8mm cassette, which woldn’t fit in a digital 8 camera…** no. maybe you’ve seen a miniDV cassette. they are smaller than hi8/digi8. in fact, i believe that hi8 cassettes can be used to recored a digi8 signal, and vice versa. * * * _what is essential is invisible to the eye -the fox_ ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2000, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-8mm-and-camcorder-photo-mode/9590/4 "2000-04-01T01:01:00Z")
You probably saw the original digital video cassette that’s widely used even by Sony. I think it’s even smaller than a 4mm digital audio cassette. The Digitial 8 format uses the same size cassette and the cameras will play Hi8 tapes. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2000, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-8mm-and-camcorder-photo-mode/9590/5 "2000-04-01T15:37:00Z")
Ah, right, thanks for explaining that… I suppose in the future they are going to produce a HDTV camcorder? ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2000, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-8mm-and-camcorder-photo-mode/9590/6 "2000-04-01T22:04:00Z")
I have a Digital8 camcorder. I like it a lot. The photo mode is okay, The Digal8 camcorders do not have progressive-scan CCD’s, so the quality isn’t as high as the photo mode on some of the more expensive digital camcorders. There’s an excellent site on the web which a professional videographer put together, comparing the resolution of the Digital8 camcorders vs the Sony TR700, a 3-chip CCD camcorder worth substantially more. He has lots of still images there, including images of some video reference posters showing lines of resolutions and such. I don’t have the URL, but I’ll bet you’ll find it if you search for ‘Digital8 and TR700’ or some variations on that. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2000, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-8mm-and-camcorder-photo-mode/9590/7 "2000-04-01T23:32:00Z")
What I do is just run the video from any type of camcorder [vhs & 8mm so far] or vhs cassette, into a tv card on the computer [ATI] & do capture stills that way. The quality is okay.