Easy Guide to the Ins and Outs of Camcorders
Back in the day, if you wanted to film home movi’es, you would have to lug a huge box on your shoulder along with a heavy battery pack. Luckily, modern technology has come a long way, making it easier than ever before for anyone to create movi’e magic.
Digital camcorders are amazingly compact, produce sharp images that previously only professionals attained in studios and they’re also becoming more and more affordable to match any budget.
Instead of recording to tape as was the case traditionally, modern camcorder models will record to DVD, hard drive or memory card. The latest camcorders will even record in high definition, allowing you to enjoy theatre quality images on your HD TV.
The following guide will give you all the main facts that you need to know to understand why camcorders are a popular buyer’s choice when it comes to capturing quality film.
Why Camcorders Stand Out
In comparison to digital cameras, camcorders generally have bigger sensors, which allow them to capture sharper footage – high end models can even boast the same or better resolution as some TV broadcasts.
When it comes to file size and memory, many digital cameras use the MPEG4 format – this compresses the file to squeeze around 30 minutes of footage to a gigabyte of memory, but the downside is it impacts on image quality. In contrast, camcorders which have a hard drive can save up to 45 hours of high definition footage onto a massive 60GB memory allowance.
In addition, camcorders boast in-house editing and other nifty film related functionality that compact cameras and SLR’s (digital single-lens reflex cameras) don’t have the capacity for.
Best Camcorder Features to Look Out For
Intelligent Auto
This feature identifies the type of scene in each frame and selects the best shooting mode to ensure the highest quality footage possible. Modes include ‘Face’, ‘Beach’ and ‘Sports’, as well as anti-shake and low light recognition.
Full High Definition
What makes high definition footage so crisp is that it contains more lines and pixels in each frame, which is what makes the images look so true-to-life when displayed on a HD TV. The best that is currently available is full high definition – this captures footage in 1920 x 1080 pixels, delivering five times more detail than standard definition camcorders.
24MPS Recording
This type of recording capability effectively uses as much of the image data as possible to deliver extremely sharp detail, smooth motion and colours that really stand out. You’ll definitely want 24 mps recording if you’re filming fast-paced action footage.
Wide-angle Lens
A wide-angle lens amounts to being able to fit more into a frame – if you like shooting epic scenery or large groups of friends and family, this will be an important feature in your camcorder.
Face Detection
This function will recognise faces when you’re taking photos and fine-tune the focus, exposure and colour balance to deliver perfect portraits.
Zoom
Camcorders tend to have larger lenses which can offer up to 60x magnification to bring distant images into close focus without the need for a telephoto lens.
Touchscreen LCD
These days everything’s gone touchscreen – it makes functionality navigation much easier, so this is a great feature to have. A LCD display itself is crucial, since this will deliver the sharpest images.
Memory
The ideal is to have a camcorder that stores memory to both an internal Hard Disk Drive (HDD) and removable memory card (Flash). HDD allows for huge storage capacities for your footage, while Flash lets you stay light while on the move with a removable digital card.
Hard drive memory has an average capacity of 80GB, which offers up to 60 hours of recording. Memory cards are available in a range of gigabyte sizes, but HD camcorders will need a high speed memory card.
Megapixels
If you want your camcorder to double as a camera to take still images, you’ll want to go for 10 megapixel (10MP) resolution, as this offers truly excellent quality.
Conclusion
The above guide explains some of the top features to keep an eye out for if you’re in the market for a camcorder. It’s always a good idea to take your time to research thoroughly before making an important buy, so another great way to get to grips with the right choice for your needs and budget is to read the useful camcorder reviews online so you can find out what buyers have to say.
About the Author: Michael Dehomme is an electronics repair shop owner and camcorder enthusiast.
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