iankirk.net

A friend of mine asked for some advice about how to choose a camcorder. Here's what I said:

There are mainly three different types of camcorders:

1) ones that record on tape
2) ones that record on hard disk
3) ones that record on DVD

Tapes have better image quality and you can keep them so that your original footage is always available to you, but you have to buy new ones (added expense) and it can take time to transfer the movies that you made from to tape to your PC (and sometimes this can go wrong).

Hard Disk camcorders are the latest technology and they make it easy to make DVD quality films because it’s quick to transfer the footage that is stored on the hard disk of the camcorder to the hard disk of your computer. Plus with hard-disk camcorders your don’t have to buy tape. At the moment only JVC and Sony have hard-disk camcorders on the market, but there are sure to be more soon. The JVC ones don’t have viewfinders and this would put me off buying one. Sony ones do but they have only just come out and they are expensive at the moment.

DVD camcorders are for people who do not want to edit their movies with their computer. I don’t recommend this approach if you want to make your own short films.

Camcorders are more interesting if you use video-editing software on your computer to make your films and DVDs. You can burn DVDs and send them to friends and family, or you can make websites or e-mails with short films. If you plan to use your PC, choose a camcorder that either records onto tape or onto hard disk. Make sure your PC has lots of hard disk space for the video files, that it has a firewire interface or USB 2 interface depending on how the camera connects to the computer, and that it is able to run video editing software. Of course a DVD burner is also essential to make your own DVDs. Make sure it supports the DVD+R format – this is used by PCs, Macs and ordinary DVD players so you can be sure that what you make will work everywhere. If you have a PC I recommend Adobe Premiere Elements to start with as your editor. If you use a Mac it already comes with some nice, simple video editing software called iMovie.

Once you know what type of camcorder you want, there are some other important features that should guide your decision:

1) Can you hold it comfortably in your hand? The camcorder we bought is actually uncomfortable to use for long. This makes it harder to take the shots that we want.

2) Are the buttons on the camcorder arranged so that you can easily start and stop recording, zoom, and (if the camera has this feature) take still images. Again, our camcorder isn’t very good as far as this is concerned – it’s too easy to press the wrong button and it’s almost impossible to press a button to take a still image or zoom without shaking the camera and ruining the shot. GO TO A SHOP AND CHECK THIS BEFORE YO BUY ANYTHING.

3) Does it have a viewfinder? It’s hard to take steady and well composed shots with a camcorder that only has a screen, especially in bright daylight.

4) Can you attach a tripod – I think pretty much every camera lets you do this.

5) Can you add accessories like microphones and lights. Being able to add microphones can be very important. Normally on consumer camcorders the microphone on it records the cameraman and sometimes the sounds of buttons being pressed or even the motor of the camcorder. Being able to use a microphone that is attached to a cable solves all these problems.

6) Be sensible about zoom: some camcorder manufacturers make too much of a fuss about how much you can zoom. What matters is ‘optical zoom’. ‘Digital zoom’ just expands a small part of the picture to fill a frame and makes poor quality images when zoomed in too much, optical zoom uses lenses to make a proper image like a zoom lens on an ordinary camera. Typically you don’t need much more that 15x-20x optical zoom, and for most purposes 10x-15x optical zoom is fine. Try it out in the shop. Also, make sure that the controls let you adjust the zoom accurately and simply. Our camcorder offers 120x digital zoom, and it’s almost always switched off. Whenever I try to use it, the slider switch is far too sensitive so I end up going past the point that I want. The nicest way to adjust zoom is with a lens ring rather than a slider switch because you are less likely to shake the camera while you do it. Some camcorders ‘zoom’ the microphone with the zoom of the lens.

7) Stills. Many camcorders let you take still images and store them on a memory card. This can be nice, but usually the quality is very poor. It’s not worth spending extra money to have this feature. You are better off having a separate digital camera for stills.

8) Extras. Check the prices of a spare battery and the design and cost of cases. It will make a difference to how much you enjoy your camera, and these extras can add a lot to the overall costs.

A good source for latest information and reviews for camcorders is cnet.com. This link explains in more technical detail different types of camcorders and what to look out for. They have good roundup and reviews as well.