What is a "video chip"?

What is a "video chip"?

Tim Smith (Camcorder Training Specialist) gives expert video advice on: How does a camcorder work?; Why don't consumer camcorders work well in low light? and more...

An image sensor. That's the point of a camcorder; it turns that information from an analog world into some sort of electronic pulse or into a digital world. Its no different than the audio where you turn sound into either a frequency or you turn it into a zero on one in a digital world. That all happens in the video chip - image sensor - itself. Really that's the heart of a camcorder, that's where the image is first dealt with and turned into any kind of an image that we can record and store. Camcorders have come a long way.Currently we have things like CCD or CMOS video chips. Both of those are different types of image sensors that handle this information and then reduce it to a format or formula that can be recorded, something that can be laid down on tape. Whether it's the CMOS video chip or it's the CCD video chip really that's where the information is handled and turned into something we can store.