Camcorders

From its analogue days up to today’s time, the camcorder has gone through quite a few advancements that made each newer model outshine the one that it preceded. These innovations vary from the physical properties of this electronic device to the more complex internal parts and mechanical functions. To start with, the word camcorder is a hybrid of two terms – camera and recorder. From there you can derive its main function that is to shoot and make a recording of moving pictures, or movies for short. To be able to operate, camcorders are equipped with a lens, imager, and recorder. These three primary components are crucial in each and every process of your movie-making.

The first is the lens, which is defined as an optical piece of equipment that diffuses light and then brings together these particles into a single ray in the process. In camcorders, the first step is for the lens to absorb light. The amount of light can be fine-tuned with the help of the different settings that are pre-set within the camcorder. It can also be done manually by adjusting the aperture, zoom, shutter speed, gain, and neutral density filter. For light to pass through, the aperture (also known as the iris) is opened or closed at certain measurements that will result in varied exposure and depth of field. Zoom takes care of the length of focus and angle of view, both of which are substantial in framing.

A robust camcorder like the Canon ZR700 is equipped with a 25x optical zoom lens that allows it to get closer to the subject and its Smooth Zoom Control function reduces the chances of shakes while zooming. The rate of the shutter speed is to be modified accordingly to ensure the quality of the recorded movement of your subjects. To correct the gain means to adjust the intensity of light for higher resolution when shooting in poorly lit conditions. Lastly, the neutral density filter curbs the exposure of light that will result in better colours, allowing more accommodations when shooting in situations where the amount of light is more intense. The alteration of these optical functions is just the first part and it is rather essential to make sure that your videos are neither under nor over exposed.

Following that is where the second component comes into play. The absorbed light is subsequently passed on to the imager that translates it into electric signals. Older models like the JVC Everio GZ-HM200 and Samsung SCD353 are usually equipped with analogue image sensors called Charge-coupled Device (CCD) whereas the newer ones make use of a Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) chip. Even if the CMOS image sensor is more technologically advanced, the CCD kind proves to be more competent among the two when used in low light settings. However, in terms of the quality of colour display, the CMOS sensors take the credit. Most camcorders that are sold today are already CMOS-powered, but the Sony DCR-PC1000 is the world’s first camcorder to bring the technology into play.

And lastly, after everything else, the recorder identifies the signals sent by the image sensors and finally translates them into videos that can be stored in digital format. They can be inscribed in various mediums, for instance the old-fashioned magnetic video tapes that earlier camcorder models like the Sony CCDTRV128 Hi8 used. It was not until the year 2000 that flash memory and hard drives took the place of these outdated means of storage in stages.

In the present day, camcorders that employ the use of storage devices like Video Home System (VHS) and VHS-C, its compact kind, Betamax, and Video8 are classified as analogue. On the contrary, digital camcorders are able to film videos with Digital8, miniDV (Digital Video), Digital Versatile Disc (DVD), Hard Disks, and Flash Memory. The newer methods may appear more convenient to some but in fact, when it comes to managing video archives, digital is more at risk in losing stored data unless it is saved on a hard drive. A small scratch on the surface of a DVD could permanently erase a portion of a video file while damaged VHS tapes can still be watchable (with only the noise quality of the video affected) even after being subjected to wear and tear situations.

Aside from these three most important elements, there are other parts and features of a camcorder that must be taken into account. These specifications may not appear to be of great importance at first, but they can also be considered when deciding on a purchase.

Case in point, the size of the Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screen may be actually be of significance when framing and viewing your videos while in playback mode. The majority of camcorders produced by leading brands such as Sony, Canon, Samsung, and JVC offer you more selections with their designs that have both an LCD screen and an optical viewfinder. On the other hand, the Flip UltraHD is one of those more compact camcorders that is only equipped with an LCD screen. One key point to remember about LCD screens though is that some camcorders, like the Sony DCR-TRV480, are not programmed to shoot in widescreen format unlike most Canon camcorders like the Canon Elura 100 that features true widescreen recording.

Since videos consist of both images and sound, the audio capability of camcorders must also be recognized. Sound is recorded through microphones that are either built-in or mounted separately. Allegedly, camcorders with microphones that are located in front of the body, like the Sanyo VPC-WH1 HD, have the tendency to produce sound with better quality than those with top-mounted ones such as the Sony HDR-UX20. The video, as well as the audio, quality are equally important in a movie so both aspects must be given the same consideration when examining a camcorder’s features and functions.

And certainly, weight would play a big role in particular to those who are in search of a camcorder that they can carry around and use for everyday shooting. During the olden times, camcorders were mainly used for television broadcasting only and they were bulky in size and heavy in terms of weight. But nowadays, there are models like the Kodak Zi6, Sony Webbie MHS-PM1, and Creative Labs Vado 720p that are roughly the same size as your regular mobile phone. Although, one thing that you should take note about this kind of camcorders is that their smallness in size may have to give up the gadget’s ergonomics. It would be quite disappointing if a camcorder’s function and ease of use is under estimated to give way physical appearance. At any rate, the best advice is to test the camcorder, or any gadget for that matter, personally before proceeding on buying it because nothing beats first-hand experience.