Buyer's Guide 2024: HD Camcorders
What to know when shopping for an HD camcorder
Labels: Cameras
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Though the nationwide transition from analog to pure digital TV has again been delayed (sigh!), analog is dead, and not even an act of Congress can resuscitate it. If you’ve been waiting for prices to come down to go high-def with your home movies, we’re pleased to tell you that you easily can get started with full HD video recording for well under $1,000. Even a step up to more sophisticated models with hefty built-in storage won’t break the bank. As with digital photography, there’s a lot of jargon that you’ll want to decipher before you make a buying decision. Here’s a look at the most important terms with which to be familiar, and a sampling of some of the latest, hottest cameras for home videographers.
Recording Media
The trend in digital camcorders today is toward removable flash media—SDHC, specifically—as the primary recording medium. In many cameras, this is augmented with built-in storage in the form of either a hard drive or flash memory. The advantage to using removable SDHC cards is that you can carry several with you and expand your recording time as needed. They’re small, and relatively inexpensive, with the price-per-gigabyte dropping. All of the models we’ll look at here incorporate removable media as a recording option.
Other models feature recording directly to discs such as DVD and Blu-ray. Others still use digital MiniDV tape, an older technology that remains in the marketplace for consumers who are comfortable with tape and want to keep copies of the raw footage on a shelf rather than on their computer’s hard drive.
| Canon Vixia HF20/Vixia HF200 | |
| Video Resolution: 1920x1080 Frame Rate(s): 60i, 24p, 30p Video Format: MPEG4/H.264 Still Image Resolution: 2304x1296 Lens (35mm equiv.): 15x (39.5-592.5mm) Recording Media: SDHC, 32 GB internal (HF20 only) Digital Output: USB, HDMI Dimensions: 2.8x2.4x4.9 inches Weight: 14.1 ounces List Price: $999 (HF20); $849 (HF200) |  |
| Hitachi DZ-BD10HA | |
| Video Resolution: 1920x1080 Frame Rate(s): N/A Video Format: MPEG4/H.264 Still Image Resolution: 2400x1800 Lens (35mm equiv.): 10x (47-470mm) Recording Media: SDHC, 30 GB internal, Blu-ray Disc Digital Output: USB, HDMI Dimensions: 3.4x3.2x6.5 inches Weight: 22.3 ounces List Price: $1,099 |  |
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Greg makes this comment
Monday, 27 April 2024
m2ts?
Does the Sony HDR-SR10 or the HDR-XR100 shoot in M2TS? I have Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 and wondering if i can edit video from these camera with the Adobe programDavid makes this comment
Friday, 24 April 2024
m2ts
Mplayer/mencoder does m2ts and installs on mac,linux, & windows (unless Bill put the kabosh on it in Vista due to its grey legality status). http://www.gilsmethod.com/node/848Daniel makes this comment
Wednesday, 22 April 2024
Bob makes this comment
Sunday, 19 April 2024
HD Camcorders
I was dissapointed in this article. One of the bigest issues with HD video is storage and I have yet to find an atricle informing the reader of this issue. Either people will continue to purchase external hard drives to store all this video, and they must remember that divice will fail at some point, or buy a Blu-ray burner for more permanet storage. Consumers really need to be aware of this before buying one of these camera's.