What should I look for in a decent video camera?

Question

I have a standard family and I'm looking for a standard video camera. What should I be looking for and where can I find one at a decent price?

Answer 1

Great question, and I will attempt to answer. When looking for a camcorder, first decide on the format. The two most common formats are DVD and miniDV cassette tapes. MiniDV cassette tapes are much much easier to edit on the computer, so if you plan on using it for school projects or if you want to be fancy, go with miniDV. DVD is much more convenient, you just pop in the DVD, record, then pop it into the DVD player to watch it. However, it took me forever to figure out how to edit (Ulead movie factory works).

Next, you must decide what features are most important to you. The better camcorders, have what is called a CCD chip, and professional camcorders have 3 CCDs. Some cameras have what is called a CMOS sensor, and I apologize because I am not too familiar with that. The CCDs are not direct variations of picture quality, but they help. HD provides amazing resolution as opposed to standard definition, but it is very expensive ($600 or $700 at least!), however, if you are willing to wait several years, I guarantee the price will drop. Personally, I can live without HD. Some retailers will try to make you believe the higher the optical zoom, the better. This is false. Optical zoom is important, but you probably do not need more than 10X or 12X.

   It is highly unlikely, but it would be excellent if you could find a camcorder with an external microphone input. This would allow you to connect an external microohone (shotgun, or lavalier mic) to your camera, thus immensely improving the sound quality. Audio is often underestimated, but is a true defining factor between amateurs and professionals. The input resembles a typical headphone jack usually labeled "mic".

The first thing I look for in a camcorder is its manual controls, although most consumers overlook the manual controls. The most important manual controls are focus, aperture (or exposure) and white balance. Shutter speed would be a good bonus, but it is unlikely. Focus is important when there are many things at different distances from the camera; the camera does not know what to focus on, so you must tell it! Exposure or Aperture deals with light. By simply turning a dial, you can manipulate the brightness of your scene. White balance is important because it determines what is white, then corrects the other colors accordingly. It is not too too important, but the colors may or may not be slightly incorrect when the light source changes (fluorescent, incandescent, outdoor, etc). Most people can do without these features and are perfectly fine. Unfortunately, newer cameras usually do not have these features at the consume level, so try to get an older model. I would recommend going online to www.bhphotovideo.com for the best selection, price and reliability! Good luck!!

Answer 2

panasonic pvgs320 great standard camera low price

one step higher

pvgs500 even better but more money also look into canon