how 2 choose a camcorder?

Answer 1

the answer is very simple. three points to remember while choosing a camcorder:-
1) it should capture good quality video ie. it should not change the colors of the objects it captures.
2) it should be tough enough to handle jerks. also withstand high temperatures in southern countries.
3) its workshops should be available locally so that if there is any defect in it, it should be corrected easily.

Answer 2

you shoudl either go with a mini DV or a Hard drive, i reccommend the hard rive camcorders but they are much more expensive. both are perfect for video editing with pinnacle studio. if thats what you are looking for. dont get a DVD camcorder, they are a gimick. if you go with a mini DV get a canon, i got one when i was 13 , im 17 now and the thing still works great. i lvoe it.it is good enough quality to get me into film festivals at 16. i think the best model was the zr-85 by canon, you could get it quite cheap now on ebay. but if you want a new one, dont spend more then $300 - $400, you will find some of the expensive features very unneccesary and you'll never use them.

Answer 3

ok, let me explain it to you...

There are three different types of camcorders depending on quality and your needs.
1. MiniDV camcorder
2. DVD Camcorder
3. Hard Drive Camcorder

Explaination:
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1. As the name suggests, it uses a MiniDV (Mini Digital Video) Tape, this tape records video in uncompressed format (or lossless compression). a 17minute video size is 4 Gigabytes when you record onto computer, so you can image how the quality would be like. You can connect this camcorder to your computer via firewire and download video for editing in real-time.

2. DVD camcorder are easiest to use. Just record on DVD and play it back directly on a DVD player, how simple is that. But one hour video size is 4 Gigabyte. OOPS a lot of lossy compression. You loose a bit of quality. Also note that if you want to edit the video on computer, you need to first convert the DVD into AVI or Digital Video format in your computer then only you can edit it. Take a lot longer to convert.

3. Hard drive camcorders also uses a lot of compression. But in this case you have a limited duration of recording. 20GB hard drive can record upto 4 hours in high quality, when there is no space left, you must download the video to your computer. What if you are on holidays. So this camcorder is not a good choice for holidays. But there is only one advantage, while transfering video to your computer, it is faster than real-time.

Answer 4

first, establish your price range. in this way, you will trim down your probable choices and really be satisfied with it.
Basically, Look for features that will be advantageous to you like ZOOM (do you really need that much?) and having 10-15x zoom is normally good. having a HIGH PIXEL is also important to shoot footages clearer (1.3Mpix is clear enough). SLOW-MOTION feature is an added feature that could be useful to you if you're shooting fast action and need smoother footages. DIRECT CONNECT (with a dvd burner or a computer) is one feature you DON'T want to MISS.
And If budget is not a problem, then by all means go get the high end ones like 3CCD high definition hdd camcorder. But if tight, then get a miniDV camcorder with specs i've mentioned or the one that really fits your style.

happy shopping and have fun!