As Digital Camcorders become more and more common it becomes more and more important to become an informed consumer. Becoming a savvy shopper begins with knowing your budget and asking yourself the right questions. Here are some questions to keep in mind as you work through our interactive buyers guide:

• What is my budget?
• What am I going to be filming most of the time?
• Will I need a camcorder that can take high quality stills as well?
• Is lightweight portability a very important feature?
• Do I basically want a camera that will allow me to just “point and shoot”?

With some of these questions in mind, our Buyer’s Guide will now take you step by step through the some of the most important aspects of choosing a digital camcorder most suitable for your needs.

Budget

Before determining what features and specifications to look for, you should establish a clear budget for your camcorder purchase. With over 150 models to choose from and prices that can range from $200 to over $3000, the best way to narrow your search is to have a clear notion of how much you want to invest.

As will most things in life: the more you invest the better the quality and number of features.

Recording Media

Digital video (DV) camcorders come in a range of formats, including MiniDV camcorders that use 1/4-inch tape, DVD models that record to 3-inch discs and hard disk drive (HDD) camcorders that save video and stills to an internal hard disk. There is also growing trend of camcorders that have no tape or hard drive but instead record directly to a flash memory card. We will discuss each type briefly below.

MiniDV:

Still the most popular format, it offers excellent picture quality and is very easy to edit once you have it on your PC. Each MiniDV tape will typically hold an hour of footage at normal recording speed and quality.

DVD Camcorders:

DVD camcorders record digital video onto a small DVD. DVD camcorders typically record video in mpeg-2 and can be played back in a consumer DVD player immediately after recording. DVD camcorders are good for consumers who want to be able to instantly watch their video after recording and are not interested in editing the video.

HDD (Hard Disk Drive) Camcorders:

Hard Disk Drive camcorders record video directly onto an internal hard drive on your camcorder rather than onto a video tape. HDD camcorders can typically record 7 hours or more onto their drives which make the camcorder ideal for people who need to tape longer events and do not want to switch out video tapes. Items on a hard disk drive camcorder can be deleted and moved around within the camcorder allowing camcorder users the ability to easily organize their video.

Flash Drive Camcorders:

Flash Drive camcorders record video directly to a removable flash drive. The storage capacity of these drives is usually lower than that of the HDD types of camcorders; however, flash card memory capacity is growing rapidly. These are definitely the most compact type of camcorders. One word of caution here, as this is a relatively new type of technology, we suggest that you stick to major name brands when buying this type of camera, also be aware of bargains, when something sounds to good to be true, most likely it is.

Image Sensor

One of the most important aspects to look at when purchasing a digital camcorder is the image sensor. The image sensor, also know as the CCD, is a chip inside the camcorder that converts visible light into an electronic signal which the camcorder then processes and stores to the recording medium.

The first thing to look for is the size of the CCD, the larger it is, the more light it can absorb thereby creating brighter pictures with better colors. CCD size is also a critical factor when it comes to filming in low light conditions.

The second feature you will want to look at is the number of CCD chips. The Camera will either have one or three. In a three-CCD camcorder, incoming light is split into its three primary components (red, blue and green), and a separate CCD processes each component into pixels. This produces clearer and more lifelike colors and images, especially in low-light conditions. On the other hand, a single-CCD unit uses one sensor to render the entire color spectrum. So if your budget allows it definitely look for a camcorder with 3 CCD chips.

Optical Zoom

Most modern camcorders have at least a 10X optical zoom, which should be adequate for general purposes. Vendors typically advertise the maximum digital zoom, but to achieve that length of zoom the camcorder enlarges part of the image to fill the screen, leading to grainy, pixilated, and generally unpleasant-looking images.

At higher digital zoom settings, the quality is so poor you can't see what you are taping. Fortunately, most camcorders allow you to turn the digital zoom off or restrict how far it can zoom in. The spec for maximum optical zoom is the more interesting figure: It denotes the maximum zoom that the lens itself can achieve without enhancement.

Summary

With price points continually coming down and feature sets continually going up, it is a great time to purchase a Digital Camcorder. With all of the above considerations in hand you should now be better equipped to make an more informed choice when choosing a Digital Camcorder that best suits your needs.