Digital Camcorder Buyer's Guide

Buyers guides providing up-to-date information on the latest products and technologies. Each buyers guide contains comprehensive impartial advice for consumers. Read our guides to help your decision making and to ensure you choose the best product to meet your needs. Individual guides are thoroughly researched and written by an independent expert.

Smaller, lighter, easier to use, easier to edit, better picture and better sound, these are just some of the reasons why digital camcorders have come to dominate the home movie market in the last few years. Recording information digitally, whether it is on tape, DVD or hard disk (and all are used in various camcorders) means there is no loss of quality after repeated plays. It also makes it easy to input into your PC for editing and that means you can create effects previously only available to professional filmmakers. Recording formats can be confusing, and you will need to be clear about which features you really need, but there is a type and price to suit almost everyone.

Choosing a digital camcorder

There are a wide range of camcorders on the market with prices to match. To work out the best choice for you we have outlined three user types and suggested which type of camcorder might suit them best.

Key features

Ergonomics: It does not matter how many features your camcorder has, unless you are comfortable with its size, weight and shape, and you can see and operate all the main controls on the unit, you will be wasting your money. Digital camcorders have huge advantages in these areas over analogue camcorders but if your choice is not easy to hold and operate it will not matter how small and light is, you willl find it really difficult to get the pictures you want.

Zoom: The zoom feature key on a camcorder. The ability to get closer to your subjects can make a huge difference. The optical zoom ranges are the most important. These move the image closer by internal lens movement. Basic camcorders will allow you to zoom in by a factor of 10. Others will let you get 26 times closer. Look out for models proclaiming their digital zoom factors. Some will claim 400 times magnification but picture quality will usually suffer in this process.

Image stabilisation: Failure to hold a camcorder steady will result in shaky and jerky recordings. To keep this to a minimum almost all camcorders have some form of image stabilisation device, usually electronic but sometimes optical. Poorer electronic ones can cause loss of sharpness or resolution. Electronics aside, the best way to get a stable picture is to use the camcorder with a tripod.

Recording formats: Tape one of the surprising things about digital camcorders is that many of them still use tape (in cassette form) to record data. Others use DVDs or solid state memory. These are the major formats in use.

MiniDV - the camcorder records digitally onto compact cassettes which are easy to store and use. To play on anything other than your TV (which you do by using a link to the camcorder itself) you will need to download the data to your PC and burn it onto a DVD for use in a DVD player.

DVD - these camcorders record directly onto DVDs. These are smaller than DVD movie discs but can play in DVD players. However, DVD camcorders record in one of two formats: DVD-R - which will work in most DVD Players - but can only be recorded on once; or DVD-RAM, which can be used for multiple recordings but which, at present, fewer DVD Players will accommodate.

Memory card - some camcorders record directly onto memory cards such as flash memory, Memory Sticks or Secure Digital cards. Exactly how much data they hold varies a great deal. Memory cards are also expensive compared to other storage media like tapes and disks. Some digital camcorders use tape to store video footage and a memory card to store still images.

Recording time: In tape-based formats there is usually a choice of three speeds, standard, long and extended to allow for greater recording time. Unlike their analogue counterparts slower speed has little impact on picture quality with digital camcorders. With card- and disc-based formats there will be a compromise between recording time available and mode selected.

Firewire: If you are going to use an editing program on your PC to manipulate recordings then a Firewire connection will speed up the process of data transfer. Cheaper camcorders may only have a USB connection. This is adequate for transferring still photos but could mean some data loss with moving images. Check also that your PC has a Firewire connection - cards are around £25 if you need to add one. Sony has its own version of Firewire connection called i.link.

Battery life: This will depend on the type of battery you are using, the speed at which you are recording and the recording mode that you have selected. There are three main types, NiCad, NiMH and Lithium Ion (Li-Ion). Lithium is lighter than the others, and therefore becoming the standard, but the key point is that some camcorders will only use one type. There are rechargeable options available for camcorders. Sony's InfoLithium batteries will give you information about their capacity and amount of recording time left in the corner of the LCD screen. Most batteries supplied with camcorders have an average usage time of one hour. The mAh rating is an indication of comparative battery life - the higher the mAh the longer it should last.

Programmed Auto Exposure modes: Automatically set for a variety of recording conditions AE modes can be a massive help for new and less confident users. Typical modes might be Landscape, Portrait and Sports each of which have different default controlling elements like focus, shutter speed and exposure designed to get you a successful image.

Manual overrides: Some camcorders will allow you to override default settings to get the effect that you want rather than the one the camcorder "thinks" you want. Changing default settings can be difficult on some models, but advanced users can get more from their machine by exploiting these features - a manual focus override, for example, can be extremely useful in low light situations.

External microphone: Most camcorders come with an internal microphone as standard. The advantage of an external microphone is slightly better sound recording performance and less chance of picking up the internal noise of the camcorder on the soundtrack.

Digital stills: Some digital camcorders can be used to take digital stills. These are stored on a memory card and can be transferred to a PC for further use. Most digital cameras will provide better quality pictures but it may be a useful additional feature on your camcorder if you don't have one.

Accessories

Tapes and disks: Prices and the amount of recording times will vary according to format and mode of recording. Generally speaking, tape cassettes are cheaper than disks which are cheaper than memory cards.

Editing software: Many digital camcorders are supplied with connections to a PC and editing software that you can download to make a professional job of your recordings. Soundtracks, visual effects, and time and date of recording can all be added. Other editing software packages can be bought.

Camcorder batteries: Lithium or NiCad? Rechargeable or not? Whatever your choice the chances are you will be in the market for spare or replacement batteries sooner than you think.

Tripods: The mechanical method to maintain image stabilisation. Tripods are light, easy to use and will guarantee a steady camcorder recording picture free from shaking and jerkiness.

Carrying bags: The best way to take care of your valuable equipment when you're out in the field.

Wide Angle Lenses: Using a different lens on your camcorder will give you the option of a different point of view and the chance to create different effects.

Head cleaners: Keeping tape heads and sound guides clean can mean better recordings and a longer life for your camcorder. There are cleaning products for all formats, some wet, some dry.

Memory Card readers: The efficient way to download data to your PC that is stored on a solid-state memory device like CompactFlash.

International Sites :

• Belgium (FR)
• Sweden
• Belgium (NL)
• Denmark
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Spain

Copyright © 2008 Yahoo! All rights reserved.