The idea of using video for oral histories (vs. audio only) seems to be still of some controversy among oral historians. But, we used video for one huge project last year, and I say, no going back. Especially when we consider that these are recordings for people to view and interact with (how, we haven't yet determined) on the web, the use of audio seems so, well, last century.
So, if you are recording video at events, or in gathering oral histories, what cameras (digicams? video recorders?) have you found that work well? I'm pretty sure that we're ready to go the all-digital route--downloading data from mini-dv tapes to the computer is a pain--but I don't want to end up with the video equivalent of mp3s--files of relatively low, lossily-compressed video that will cause us great depression ten years hence when, had we something even as good as .avi files of the 2000s, we could generate better public viewing versions than today's mpegs. ari
