Hey, I am looking into getting my first camera, and I am not sure what the difference is between getting a Mini Dv or a Dvd camera. Is there a difference in the quality?

Yeah, stay away from anything which records to DVDs. Both formats are compressed and look approximately the same in good conditions; DVDs use MPEG2 (which is slightly lower quality, due to much higher compressions rates) and Mini DV uses DV.

DV is the preferred format of all editing applications, so you'll end up converting it to DV anyways, which just kills the picture quality. I'd say stick with the DV tape cams

Thanks, I plan to edit most of the footage I film, and I guess I would lose a lot of quality while rendering the dvd.

Yeah, sadly it's one of those gimmicks that's too good to be true.

Those tiny little DVDs are incredibly expensive compared to some really quality DV tapes. Sure there's some convenience of popping it out of the camera and slapping it into the DVD player, but they only allow for editing after converting anyway. Stick with DV if you're going to be a serious fimlmaker. Go with DVD only if you shoot your kids or your dog running around in the yard and want to take the DVD to a friend's house to watch.

buying a DV camera is definatly the way to go... However if you have the money to spend I would recomend buying a camera that shoots in both Digital Video and High Definition (HD) seeing as that is the direction that things are heading now. However you would be looking at spending a great deal of money to get an DV/HD camera, but in the long run it is worth the money because when DV goes out you can continue using your camera for a longer amount of time. However this is only any option you should consider if you plan to spend thousands on a camera... I bought a new camera a few months ago and ended up spending $7000 Canadian on it... But it was the best $7000 I ever spent.

Don't settle for anything less than DV.