"mike" wrote...

I have a panasonic mini dv, and i want to record indoors, music
and conversation. which will produce the best sound 12 or 16 bit?
what is the difference?

16 bit means that each sound sample has a fidelity of 65536 possible
amplitude values. 12 bit means there are just 4096 possible amplitude
values. Also, I have a sneaking suspicion that 12bit audio on DV is recorded
at 32KHz instead of 48KHz, so as well as each sample having a limited amount
of fidelity in its amplitude, it's also dropping fidelity through the loss
of one third of the samples per second.

The editing software I use seems to struggle with 32KHz, 12bit DV audio, so
unless you have a good reason for using it, steer clear.


Also i use a UV filter outdoors, and for sake of the lens
never take it off. if i am recording indoors under artificial
light, will leaving it on affect the quality of the video, like
reduce light etc?

We have ours on and off the stills camera all the time, and to someone like
me, the difference isn't noticeable. They have earned their keep protecting
the lens, though! I'd suggest that continually taking it on and off is
likely to increase the chance of the camera being dropped, so it stays on
all the time.