The Consumer's Guide To Camcorder Features
Jul 19 '01 (Updated Jun 08 '05)
The Bottom Line When shopping for a camcorder, look for the right features at the right price. Ignore the hype.
Introduction- This article is intended to serve as a companion to my previous article on choosing camcorders. I’m going to focus on what I believe is the most basic thing to look for when shopping for a new camcorder. The features. It’s nearly impossible to go into a large electronics chain store and shop for a camcorder without having the sales staff pointing out those whiz bang features such as digital zoom and digital picture effects. So intense is the marketing focus on features such as these that it’s pretty easy to ignore the fact that a camcorder’s most basic function is to record a decent quality image onto a tape.
It’s important to remember that when you’re checking out the display units in the store, the picture quality on almost all of the units is going to look very good. This is attributable to a couple of things. First of all, usually, the camcorders are connected to very small monitors, usually 13” color monitors. Even low resolution analog video looks pretty good on a small screen. If you were to connect those camcorders to larger screens, say 27”, you’d begin to notice more differences. The second factor is that these stores are usually very brightly illuminated. Light is the key ingredient in video. The more light you have, the better any given unit is going to perform.
You’ll see and hear lots of hype surrounding a given camcorder’s low light capabilities. For the most part, ignore this. It is very misleading. The lux measurements that manufacturers list as the unit’s minimum illumination requirements are just what their name suggests, minimum. In most cases, you won’t get anything resembling a good picture at those light levels. In fact, to get good, high quality video, the required light level is very likely to be at least a hundred times what the manufacturer lists as the minimum required light level. There are newer camcorders that have features such as Sony’s Night Shot boasting 0 Lux capabilities. It does work but the result is a drab monochrome image. The feature uses a powerful infrared LED that produces light that, while nearly invisible to the human eye, the CCD* in the camcorder is very sensitive to. Some camcorders also have what’s called Slow Shutter that will enhance the picture quality in low light situations. However, this produces a rather jerky stroboscopic effect that just might have the viewers of your video reaching for the vomit bags. It’s fun if you want the MTV Video effect but it’s rather useless for serious video making.
Digital Picture Effects- These nifty little features are often what the sales people wow the unwary consumer with. There are a seemingly never-ending plethora of them. They range from simple wipes, fades and dissolves to features such as Solarize, Sepia and Mosaic. Also included in here is the Digital Zoom. Take a look at almost any new camcorder and you’ll see the digital zoom plastered on the unit in big letters. It’s likely to be somewhere over 150X. This is quite misleading. Occasionally, you’ll also see the Optical Zoom factor written in smaller letters. You’re not likely to find a camcorder with an optical zoom much above 26X. The optical zoom is the number you’ll want to take notice of. In my opinion, the digital zoom is practically worthless. It zooms in on the picture electronically, using fewer and fewer pixels for the picture as the zoom factor increases. This results in the image becoming quite pixilated at the low to medium range and totally useless at it’s most extreme range. An optical zoom, on the other hand, actually increases the magnification via the lens, leaving you with most of the full resolution of the CCD. The result is a zoom picture you can actually identify, provided you can hold the camera steady enough. At any rate, almost all of the digital picture effects, with the exception of the wipes and fades (which can be used to great effect if used in moderation), are practically worthless. You’ll have fun playing with them the first couple of days you have the camcorder but you’ll tire of them quickly.
Digital Photo Capabilities- A growing trend in new camcorders is to combine the camcorder with a relatively low resolution digital still camera. I’m personally not crazy about this feature. Since the images are relatively low quality compared to a true two or three Megapixel digital camera, I rarely use this function. The photos look ok as long as their size is kept small. They’re practically worthless for printing. They may be fine to use on a web page or something though. Some camcorders (Such as my Panasonic PV-DV400) will allow you to grab still frames from your videos upon playback and store them as a digital picture on the memory card. I've found that I like this option much more than the actual digital still camera.
Manual Controls- Manual controls aren’t extremely common on today’s consumer camcorders. Many units do have manual focus but that’s about it on many lower end camcorders. If you want a higher level of control, you’ll either have to be willing to shell out more cash or make your selection from a relatively small number of the more inexpensive units. One control that is almost always excluded from consumer camcorders is Manual White Balance. Most camcorders have auto white balance. The white balance control allows you to correct the color balance according to the type of light you’re shooting under using the color white as a reference. It’s barely perceptible to the human eye but light comes in different colors. Daylight is more blue, while artificial tungsten light is more red. Strange things happen when a camcorder attempts to compensate for these color differences on it’s own. Often, you end up with a video that looks very off color. Did you ever notice that people in many home videos look unnaturally red, or pale? This is the result of incorrect color balance. The only way to even attempt to correct it is by using the white balance control as you’re shooting the video. Unfortunately, most manufacturers have decided that people don’t care if their memory of a loved one who may have passed on is clouded by an off color video.
Manual Exposure- This is another important feature that gets left off of many consumer camcorders. Have you ever seen a home video that looks unnaturally bright? Perhaps it was so bright that the picture was nearly entirely washed out. As in the case of the white balance, the camcorder also attempts to compensate for differences in light levels. In ideal lighting situations, the auto exposure systems work fairly well. However, there are many situations where you won’t get an acceptable picture unless you can control the exposure yourself. For example, if you have a person against a dark background, you’re going to have problems. The camcorder will attempt to compensate for the large dark area in the picture by bringing up the brightness. This will result in your main subject being washed out. On the other hand, you'll sometimes have a situation where you'll have a person with a very bright background behind them. The camcorder will bring the exposure way down and you'll end up with anything from an overly dark main subject, to nothing more than a silhouette. Most camcorders have a Backlight function to adequately deal with this situation though.
Manual Shutter Speed- This control, while not quite as important as the previous two is still very useful. For example, if you’re shooting a sporting event outdoors on a bright sunny day, you can use higher shutter speeds. This will result in the action being less blurred and will also allow you to get clear freeze frames without blur if you want to pause the action while watching later on. Also, you can use slower shutter speeds in low light to enhance the low light performance.
Programmed Auto Exposure- Many manufacturers have attempted to compensate for the lack of the manual controls I mentioned above by including preprogrammed exposure settings to deal with difficult lighting conditions. These are functions with names such as Portrait Landscape and Twilight. While the results are often satisfactory, there really is no substitute for full manual control. Granted, the programmed auto exposure settings make the units much more user-friendly for people who don’t want to spend all day fiddling with buttons but full manual controls could still be included.
Built-In Video Lights- A lot of camcorders come with a small video light built into the front of the camera. It’s often around 10 watts or something. This light is really rather useless for anything other than fill lighting. It’s not really a substitute for good lighting. It can give a little more of a sparkle to your subject's eyes if used properly.
Analog Or Digital?- This is the question that seems to be at the top of the shopper’s list. Digital camcorders are rapidly becoming nearly as inexpensive as analog units were a few years ago. It’s not uncommon to see a basic MiniDV camcorder selling for around $700. While that sounds like a lot, you have to take into consideration that there are still analog camcorders selling for nearly $500 or more. The prices for digital are likely to drop even further in the next few years. If you’re serious about video and you’re thinking of getting into editing your videos on your PC, digital is the way to go. In most cases, the only additional equipment you’ll need to get started editing on your computer is a IEEE1394 Firewire card. I purchased the Pinnacle Systems Studio DV package for around $100. The package came with the card, the cable and the software. It took me about 35 minutes to install the card and the software. I had my first completed 15 minute video within a few hours.
If you have no interest in digital editing, you can still benefit somewhat from purchasing a digital camcorder. However, keep in mind that if you dub your footage onto a VHS tape, the resolution of the finished video is going to be limited by the VHS format’s resolution of around 240 lines. Another thing to bear in mind is that although the theoretical maximum resolution of MiniDV and Digital8 is about 550 lines, most of the consumer digital camcorders don’t even come close to this maximum resolution. Their resolution, in many cases is closer to 400 lines. Sometimes even lower than that. This is due to the camera section of the camcorder. A camcorder consists of two basic sections. It’s a mini video camera combined with a mini VCR. Even if the VCR section is capable of recording 550 lines of resolution, it can’t do so if the video camera section isn’t sending it 550 lines . Many digital camcorders have a 460,000 pixel CCD. Some have somewhere around 640,000. There are a couple that have Megapixel CCDs However, the full resolution Megapixel image is only used for capturing still photos.
Suggested Accessories- If you want to get serious about Videography, there are a few accessories which you’ll want to consider. The first and most obvious would be additional battery packs. There’s nothing more frustrating than having to end a taping session because your battery died. Depending on your model, they can range in price from $20 to anywhere near $100. One accessory that I highly recommend is a Wide Angle Lens attachment. This is a small conversion lens that screws into the threads on the front of the camcorder. If you were trying to shoot some video of a large group of people in a confined space, you probably wouldn’t be able to get all of them into the shot at the same time. A Wide Angle lens will enable you to do that without having to move back or pan the camera. Plus it can create some interesting (And amusing) close up effects too. You can purchase one of these through mail order. Probably the single most important accessory that you’ll definitely want to have is a good, solid Tripod. If your interest in video is limited, you’ll be fine with a $40 department store tripod. Just make sure it’s sturdy enough to hold your camcorder without tipping.
Conclusion- Many of the features that are touted on today’s camcorders are marketing gimmicks, designed to catch your eye in the store. If you do some research and look beyond the big bold print, you should be able to find a unit that has just the perfect amount of features for your needs, for a price that won’t break the budget.
*CCD- Is the acronym for Charge Coupled Device. The CCD of the camcorder is a light sensitive chip not unlike the film in a standard film camera.
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