My dad used to say that when he was a kid shopping was much more easier. The only thing you had to look when you go to shop was to make sure that you had the money with you. But world has canged drastically over the past 10 years. People have more money in their hands, they have more needs, more producers and more choices to make. Even if you go to purchase a pinapple candy you will have to choose from rich pinapple candy, pineappple with honey and lots more... If choosing something that simple has become this tough I dont think that I should mention how hard its to purchase a CamCorder when you have tons of them availabe in the market. ( Canon itself have over 30 models in the consumer range ).
But to shop these days you have to be really stong minded. You have to have a " must have " list and a " nice to have" list. This will make shopping easier.
Having a CamCorder at had is a really good thing. Its nice to live life again and again. 'Cuz life is only once. But choosing one is not a kids job. Let me tell you something.
When you approach the market as a consumer fix your budget. And let me tell you its better to buy something realy good than purchasing something which is cheap and having to repair it over and over. You are doing it only once ..right..?
You can get good CamCorder's at around $700. A $600 to $1000 would be a good budget. But cheaper ones are available even from world leaders like Sony at $300. Those ones will work for sure but will not have good TV quality or DVD quality for their videos. So keep the following as a minimum for your CamCorder.
Analog Cams are costlier so you have to choose for a Digital one.
You must have atleast a 1/3 inch CCD.
Cams with 3 CCD instead of Single CCD have separate units to convert the light falling on the lens to electronic image. The have separate converters for Red Blue and Green. Which means more the clarity of the video and ofcource more the cost.
The cam should preferably have atleast 2 Megapixel Still picture recording quality and atleast 1.2 Megapixels of video recording quality.
You must have an image stabiliser function. Prefer Optical Image Stabilisation ( O.I.S) to correct all your hand shakes.
You must have atleast 10X optical zoom. This is a must as digital Zooms do get you mush closer but they destroy the image quality.
Along with auto focus you must have manual focus ( with focus ring prefered ). As someday when you will become a pro, you will miss this feature badly.
Prefer models in which you can change the lens and add some other. Like remove a wide angle lens and add a telephoto lens or so. You will need that all once you are a pro.
A LCD screen of 2.5" or a mximum 3" is prefered. More the window size more battery is used so a bigger LCD is not always good. But 2.5" is essential.
Along with the LCD the viewfinder is a must. When at times to conserve battery you will have to depend on this viewfinder.
Regarding battery life ... a minimum of 1 hour backup is needed..right..?
HardDisk based drives are available these days. These comes in capacities of 30 GB and above. HardDisks keep you away from those DV tapes and DVD's. They are convinient as you wont have to carry any tapes or you wont have to convert the captured video before editing but its said that they make a rumming sound ( of rotating disks ) while in operation. Recording on DVD's is not a good option. A DVD can include only about 30 mins of high quality video. Even though many CamCorder's support re-writable DVD's I dont thnik its a good choice. Also DVD's are not cost effective. But with DVD's you can play your videos direcly on a DVD-player right after you captured the video without anymore editing.You need no more conversion to edit your videos. The quality of DV-Tapes is unmatched. Its a better option only you will have to do a conversion before you can edit. Also its cost effective. Flash based CamCorder's are available but owing to smaller flash memmories of a maximim of 2 GB inbuilt, they can record only minutes of video.
So I think you can choose from a Hard-Disk based or a DV-Tape based CamCorder at your convinience.
When you are going to record a long DVD quality video of about 20GB or 30 GB in size you need a fast method to transfer it to your PC. So you cam must have a firewire port ( its the fastest ) or at least a USB port. Some good cams from Canon have a mic input, a TV out and a Video-in ( To convert tapes to digital video's right from your cam ! ) along with both Firewire and USB port.
These days CamCorder's come with much more features like in-built Mp3 playes, webcams and much more. Look for a good one keeping these tips in mind. First write down what all features do u need and make the right choice. Also remember to choose from Sony , Canon , Panasonic , JVC or Samsung. Above all your satisfaction is important. Have a nice time finding one.
Good Luck!
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