Digital Camcorders

Interested in producing your own home movies, editing them yourself and then e-mailing them to your friends all over the world?

The latest camcorders are small enough to use with one hand but loaded with all the features you’ll ever need. Most models will let you choose between video and still photo modes at the flick of a button.



As well as the standard viewfinder like you get on a camera, they also have a built-in screen that opens out and rotates so you can see your video as you’re recording it. This is very useful for filming yourself, as you can point the camera and rotate the screen so it’s facing you, making sure you’re ‘in the picture’.

The majority of camcorders are digital and come with a built-in microphone. Other features you can expect include auto focus, image stabiliser to keep the picture still at all times, night mode for recording at low light levels and an optical zoom facility of at least 20 x, handy for those all-important close-ups at office parties or baby’s first birthday.

Connection to your computer is normally USB so you can edit your creations yourself by making use of the accompanying software. It’s a good idea to do some research here, as not all software is as easy to use as it should be.

AV cables are usually included as well, which let you plug the camcorder directly into your TV and watch your own movies on the big screen in your front room.

Standard screen sizes are typically 2.5 inches, which is big enough to get a good idea of what you’re shooting but not too big to get in the way. Camcorders have a sensor resolution of between 1 and 5 mega pixels. As with everything digital, the more pixels you have, the better the quality.

Depending on the model you choose, the actual video is recorded on DVD or Mini DV tapes. Photos, on the other hand, are automatically stored on a memory card of some sort. Keeping them separate in this way makes transfer and storage much easier. Some models also have an internal hard disk for added storage.

The digital advantage is that, once you’ve recorded your video, you can download the whole thing onto computer, save it on a CD or DVD, and then record over your DVD or Mini DV tape again.

You’ll find all the features you get on most digital cameras these days, including the ability to add special effects directly from the recorder. Most units let you take photos as well as shoot video, but the photos are usually low resolution and therefore not always the best quality.

A great place to find a cheap digital camcorder is Digital Camcorders as they have guides to all kinds of digital camcorder and feature lots of cheap camcorders on each page.

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