Digital Camcorder Reviews

Welcome to the Digital Camcorder Reviews for today!

Camcorders have come a long way over the years, since I was first introduced to what was available in the market back in the early days. Technology has been great for making the units extremely compact, which is another bonus to consumers. The very first camcorder I was able to get my hands on and use made you really plan ahead what you wanted to record, as the units were extremely heavy and storage media was not very cheap for the average person.

Fast forward to today's technology, we have extremely versatile units with an array of choices for the storage media you would want to use. Enhancements to the software that drive the digital camcorders have made them so simple that anybody can virtually point and click and record excellent content. However, not all cameras are created equal and that is one of the things that make it really tough on choosing which unit to purchase.

I searched and read as many articles as I could find time to read, and when you start looking at all the features a digital camcorder has to offer.. well, it really propels a person into a deer in the headlights type of syndrom!

The new digital camcorders are riding the wave of the new High Definition plasma / LCD / television units, offering HD digital recording. It's one of those shiny trinkets that lure people into a false sense of security! Well, for the average consumer that is. What I mean by this is unless you have a computer that is fast enough to do the video editing / movie creation, you've just walked into your next challenge.

I discovered, after purchasing my new HD digital camcorder, a new challenge in creating a dvd that would play the content. 4 hours of recorded content, 24 hours of rendering to create / burn the master dvd to see the results.

Well, my system was about 6-7 years old but I was expecting to just plug the camera in and work with the video real time. The video became a slide show in the editors, didn't matter which one I used. I did some additional research and discovered the PC had to decompress the HD content to work with it.

One solution is to use one of the "lesser" recording formats, for Standard Definition (SD). The digital camcorder I purchased offers 3 SD settings, and 2 HD settings.

The only other challenge I have discovered so far is when it comes to recording anything in the early evening / night time. Unless the area you are filming is well lit, the quality of the video becomes grainy.

I decided to upgrade my PC hardware, and today I can edit the highest HD content in realm time. Instead of taking 24 hours to render about 4 hours of content, it now takes 40-45min on average. It was a huge upgrade, but long over due.

Make sure you research all the features of the camera to make sure they fit your budget and needs. The base models are just enough to play around with, accessories are just more shiny trinkets dangled in front of you! The next purchase for the digital camcorder I have will be digital camcorder batteries that yield more time between recharges.

Share your experience and stories so others can learn from our history, and perhaps save them from going down the same roads.