How to Choose the Right Camcorder

by Agung So Blogger

If you visit your local electronics store, you'll encounter a vast range of camcorders. How would you know which camcorder is the one you need? What do you need to know before choosing the right camcorder? Here are some factors and specification guide to direct you in choosing the best camcorder.

Price
Determine your budget range. How much money are you willing to spend on the gadget. Budgeting will prevent you from spending your money unnecessarily and buy features you don't need. Commonly higher price gets better feats, although costlier camcorder isn't always produce better result. But if there's a significant price gap, that would mean there are additional mumbo-jumbo worth the price.
Compare each type and brand's price in one store, than compare your choice between stores. This way you can get the best price easier.

Camcorder's Use
Make sure you know or at least, have planned what you're going to make your camcorder out of. If you're going to record a lot of outdoor activities, it's better to choose camcorders perform well outdoor (able to take care of backlights, etc). It it's otherwise, look for camcorders sensitive enough to capture moments in fewer light (indoor lights are not comparable to sunlight, so it's still not bright enough fro your camcorder than to our eyes).
To femiliar with camcorder features, you can browse or google the internet. Read reviews and people's experiences do help a lot. The time spent to research prior to purchasing a gadget will be paid of when you find a camcorder lasts for years.

Recording Format
Pictures were firstly recorded using only analog method until the discovery of digital data storage which enables events to be stored in numerical formats. Analog format and storage method is leading in quality and endurance. Many companies and professional multimedia practitions are still relying on analog methods to backup and store their data/profile.
Digital format however wins in the ease of editing the recorded motion, which becomes very tedious if you're using an analog format. Along with the advance in technology, digital format quality is already catching up analog format with reasonable price. Digital media storages however are prone to crashes and data loss compared to analog. This is very risky for large companies and pros so that they choose a more expensive analog equipment to support their data storage.
If you want to be able to edit and replay your recorded footage on any kind of media players easily, go for digital camcorders. Their cons compared to analog aren't affecting home users so much and still acceptable. Most of the camcorders sold in the markets are digital camcorders so you won't be having troubles finding one.

Camcorder's ease of use
If you're a tech freak, this won't matter at all. You'll enjoy discovering functions and features while going through buttons and menus. But if you just want to take pictures as soon as you hold your camcorder, you'll want to make sure if you can operate it well at the store before purchasing one and take it home.

Customer service
If the brand you're purchasing has a local representative and they provide good after sales service complete with spare parts available, then you can sleep well tonight. When something happens to your camcorder, the trouble won't stop there if there's no local support branch and finally they tell you to send the camcorder overseas and wait for months just to find out what's wrong and fix it.

Those are initial and crucial factors you need to consider when going to buy a camcorder. After setting up your budget and knowing what you're going to use it for, you're already half the way. The other half will add to your satisfaction if you do your research around the gadget you want to buy before making a decision.

Author is maintaining a local blog about sewa handycam (handycam rentals) at http://sewamultimedia.com