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A camcorder is a great way to document the important and fun events in your life.
Besides heartwarming birthday, wedding, and party videos, you can create your own quirky
films, make documentaries of family, friends, and places, and share your videos with
others. Today's camcorders are a thousand times removed from the big, clunky VHS machines
of a decade ago. Modern camcorders are slim, compact machines with powerful zoom, image
stabilization, special effects, and bright viewscreens. You'll find most camcorders to be
extraordinarily portable and easy to use.
Choosing a camcorder can be confusing, especially with the proliferation of multiple
recording formats. The days of the VHS monopoly are long gone: now you can choose between
VHS-C, 8mm, Hi8, and even digital formats. Camcorders also come with a wide array of
options and features.
Camcorder Formats
When you're choosing a camcorder, the most important decision will be which format you
want. Camcorders don't all use the same recording media, and which format you choose will
affect how you play back your tapes, the quality of your video and audio, and the quality
of your copies.
VHS Tape
VHS camcorders use the same kind of tapes that your VCR plays. When camcorders originally
came out, they all used VHS tapes, but over the years, new formats have entered the
market. VHS tape has the advantages of being cheap and easy to find--and most importantly,
you can play back VHS tapes in any modern VCR. This is an important consideration if you
want to make first-generation tapes for others or you want to take your tapes to other
people's houses without lugging the camcorder with you. The VHS format lags when it comes
to quality, however--with a maximum resolution of 270 lines and adequate but not stellar
audio, VHS tape isn't a good choice if you're doing semi-professional work or making a lot
of copies.
VHS You can still get camcorders that use normal-sized VHS tapes, but
they tend to be much bigger and bulkier. They do have the advantage of using longer
tapes--two hour standard play (SP) recording time, as opposed to 30 minutes for VHS-C.
VHS-C camcorders use normal VHS tape in a smaller cassette. They tend
to be compact and lightweight. VHS-C is a popular format because it's easy to play back:
the camcorders usually come with a VHS-tape-shaped adapter that lets you play the VHS-C
tape in any VCR.
SVHS Super VHS is a higher-quality version of VHS that offers
400-line resolution and better audio. SVHS tapes are the same size as normal VHS tapes,
and you can use normal VHS tapes in SVHS camcorders (but without the quality advantages).
SVHS camcorders are mainly targeted towards professionals; they tend to be pricey and
large.
8mm tape
8mm tape is smaller than VHS tape, allowing 8mm camcorders to be more compact and
lightweight. It does have the drawback that you can't play it in a normal VCR. Most often,
you'll have to hook your camcorder to your TV for playback.
Normal 8mm tapes have the same resolution as VHS--240-270 lines--but pack more tape
into a smaller package. You can record up to five hours in SP mode on an 8mm tape.
Hi8 is a higher-quality version of 8mm, much like SVHS is a better
version of VHS. The Hi8 format offers the best quality you can get without going digital,
and is small and lightweight. It is more expensive than VHS or normal 8mm in terms of both
camcorders and tapes, but you'll see and hear the difference.
Digital formats
The digital revolution has finally reached the camcorder market: manufacturers are now
offering a new generation of digital camcorders. The digital format has a host of
advantages. For starters, video quality is very high, at 500 lines of resolution. Color
richness and accuracy is much improved as well, since digital records across a wide color
spectrum. In terms of sound, the digital format can record 16-bit CD-quality audio, and
most digital camcorders also let you record 12-bit audio in two channels for layered
soundtracks. One of the biggest advantages to the digital format is that it lets you make
digital copies with no loss of quality, unlike any of the other formats. While you will
experience a loss of quality if you copy to a VHS or 8mm tape, it will be comparatively
small since the original image is so high-quality. Digital camcorders allow you to take
digital still shots as well, essentially giving you a digital camera as a bonus. The
biggest misunderstanding about digital, however, is that you can simply plug your digital
camcorder into your computer and download your videos. While you can do this with digital
still cameras, video is a different matter. You can certainly download and edit your
digital video, but you have to purchase a separate video capture card first. And you
should be aware that digital video takes huge amounts of storage space. That's why digital
camcorders still use tapes (more storage space) rather than memory chips or cards.
Canon ES65 Hi-8
Canon ES75 Hi8
Canon ES420V Hi-8
Canon ES8200V Hi-8
Canon ES8400V Hi8
Canon Elura 2MC Digital Camcorder
Canon Elura 40MC MiniDV Digital Camcorder
Canon GL1 Digital Camcorder
Canon Optura PI Digital Camcorder
Canon XL1S Digital Camcorder
Canon ZR20 Digital Camcorder
Canon ZR25MC Digital Camcorder
Canon ZR30MC Digital Camcorder
Canon ZR40 MiniDV Digital Camcorder
Canon ZR45MC MiniDV Digital Camcorder
Canon ZR50MC MiniDV Digital Camcorder
JVC GRAX760U
JVC GR-AXM230U
JVC GRDVL120U MiniDV Digital CyberCam
JVC GR-DVL805U Digital Camcorder
JVC GR-DVL815U Digital Camcorder
JVC GR-DVM55U Digital Camcorder
Kodak MC3 Portable Digital Camera/Camcorder and MP3 Player
Panasonic PV-L751 Camcorder
Panasonic PV-DV201 Digital Camcorder
Panasonic PV-DV401 Digital Camcorder
Panasonic PV-DV601 Digital Camcorder
Panasonic PV-DV851 Digital Camcorder
Panasonic PV-DV901 Digital Camcorder
Panasonic PVDV52 MiniDV Digital Camcorder
Panasonic SVAV10 MPEG4 e-Wear Digital Camcorder
Samsung SCD67 MiniDV Digital Video Camcorder
Samsung SCL700 Hi8 Camcorder
Sharp VNEZ1 MPEG-4 Internet
Viewcam
Sharp VL-AH30U Viewcam
Sharp VLAH50U Viewcam
Sharp VLNZ100U MiniDV Compact Digital Viewcam
Sharp VLSD20U Digital ViewCam
Sony CCDTRV108 Hi8 Camcorder
Sony CCDTRV308 Hi8 Camcorder
Sony CCDTRV608 Hi8 Camcorder
Sony DCR-PC110 Digital HandyCam
Sony DCRPC101 MiniDV Compact Camcorder
Sony DCRPC120BT MiniDV Camcorder
Sony DCR-TRV130 Digital-8 Camcorder
Sony DCRTRV140 Digital8
Sony DCR-TRV230 Digital-8 Camcorder
Sony DCRTRV240 Digital8 Camcorder
Sony DCRTRV340 Digital8
Sony DCR-TRV530 Digital-8 Camcorder
Sony DCRTRV740 Digital8 Camcorder
Sony DCRTRV840 Digital8 Camcorder
Sony DCRTRV18 MiniDV Digital Handycam
Sony DCRTRV25 MiniDV Digital Handycam
Sony DCRTRV27 MiniDV Digital Handycam
Sony DCRTRV50 MiniDV Digital Camcorder
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