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How to Buy a Digital Camcorder
A Quick Guide to Save You Time and Money Buying a New Camcorder
Friday, February 11, 2011
Intro
The current cast of consumer HD camcorders ranges from small to smaller. They're easy to carry and use, and they let you shoot hours of rich, vivid high-definition video. Here's an overview of your camcorder options, from pocket to professional-grade.
By Bryan Hastings, PCWorld
Friday, February 11, 2011
Which camcorder is right for you?
Pocket Camcorders ($80-$250) - “Flip” or “Youtube” camcorders
Pros - great because their size and ease of use; flip out USB jack; low PC horsepower
Cons - Their small lenses, “lossy” MPEG-4 codec, and tiny on-board microphones yield poorer-quality video and audio quality than conventional camcorders offer
Friday, February 11, 2011
Which camcorder is right for you?
Standard-Definition Camcorders. ($180 to $330)
HD is all the rage, so should you bother considering a standard-definition camcorder? If you’re looking ahead to the future, no. But if you need something inexpensive right now, maybe.
Pros - budget-conscious buyers who want to shoot decent quality video; Standard-definition video files are smaller and easier to work with;Many households still have standard-definition televisions
Friday, February 11, 2011
Which camcorder is right for you?
Cons - SD is slowly fading from the scene
Friday, February 11, 2011
Which camcorder is right for you?
HD Consumer Camcorders ($300 to $1000)
Besides capturing much better-quality video, these camcorders offer more options and controls, and they usually include SD card slots for removable storage media.
Pros - You get more memory, bigger lenses and sensors, and sharper and more-spacious LCD panels as well as high definition quality
Friday, February 11, 2011
Which camcorder is right for you?
Cons - Most HD consumer camcorders use AVCHD, a codec that imposes heavy demands on your PC but preserves most of the original video's richness and crispness; can be expensive
Friday, February 11, 2011
Which camcorder is right for you?
HD Prosumer Camcorders ($1000 to $3000)
Pros - higher quality components; extensive manual controls and shooting modes; true 24p (24-frames-per-second progressive) shooting to produce video that closely resembles motion-picture film
Cons - Costly; larger and heavier; focus and aperture control
Friday, February 11, 2011
Which camcorder is right for you?
Video-Capable Digital SLRs ($1000 to $5000)
Use a still camera to shoot professional-quality video? It’s not as crazy as it seems. The latest DSLR cameras are video-capable, capturing HD video as well as excellent still images. For the money, video-capable DSLRs offer exceptionally large sensors and very good lenses, so the user can produce excellent video.The video is so good, in fact, that DSLR-shot video is cropping up in TV and film productions, including last season’s final episode of House and in a Formula One chase scene in Ironman II. HD video DSLRs offer a combination of small size and strong depth-of-field control, so users can shoot from locations that are too cramped for a bulky professional camcorder. - PC World
Friday, February 11, 2011
Flash Is King
Out of all the camcorders, Flash based camcorders are the most versatile for casual video capturing and editing.
Types: Hard Drive Based Camcorders; Flash Based Camcorders; DVD Based Camcorders; MiniDV (Tape)
Friday, February 11, 2011
Types
Hard Drive Based Camcorders: On-board hard drives offer a lot more storage capacity than flash, but for most users the trade-offs aren't worth the extra space. You can't swap disk drives in and out; battery life
Flash Based Camcorders: A flash drive is generally more durable than a hard drive due to its solid-state nature, but a fixed flash drive has the same limitations as a hard-drive-based camcorder: You can't remove the drive
DVD Based Camcorders: YIKES!! Don’t go there....
Mini DV: Cheap; lossy quality; low shelf life
Friday, February 11, 2011
Picking the Right SD Card
If you opt for an SD-card-based camcorder, you'll need to buy your storage space separately.
SD cards come in three formats: SD, SDHC, and SDXC
Cards that use the original SD format max out at 2GB of storage, which isn't enough for most video needs.
You'll want to stick with SDHC cards (4GB to 32GB) or SDXC cards (64GB or more).
Class 4 speed rated card works fine. If you don't plan on shooting a lot of footage, you needn't splurge on a Class 6 or Class 10 card. But if you expect to crank out reams of long Full HD video files, get a card with the highest maximum speed rating you can afford. The higher the maximum rating, the faster you can whisk your video from the camera into your PC for editing and archiving.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Other Things to Consider
Recording file format: AVCHD (Advanced Video Codec High Definition)
Screen: LCD and Viewfinder
Lens: Optical is boss not digital zoom; wider = better
Image Stabilization: Optical is better; get a tripod!!
Battery Life: 1 hour, at least
Microphone: Front-mounted
Friday, February 11, 2011
