Which Video Camera? The Beginners' Guide To Video Cameras

I was recently asked by a friend if I knew anything about video cameras - rather than writing a long email to them about the different types of video cameras, I thought I would write a beginners' guide to choosing a camcorder and put it up here instead.

Video cameras are a great way to capture those special moments in life, especially if you have young children - somehow a photo isn't quite the same as a moving picture. If you've been thinking about buying a video camera, but aren't sure where to start, then read on.

I've summarised the main types of camera currently for sale, the pros and cons of each format and some desirable features you should look out for whichever type of camcorder  you choose. I've also taken a quick look at how budgetary constraints might influence your choice, as video cameras cover a very wide range of prices.

Video Camera Formats: Don't know your DV from your HDD? Read on...

It wasn't so long ago that there was only one format - analogue tape. As the years went by, tapes got smaller, higher capacity and better quality, but the basis of the technology remained the same.

In recent years, however, that has all changed. There are currently three principle recording technologies in use in the newest generation of consumer video cameras, all of them digital.

DV Video Cameras

DV (Digital Video) is perhaps the last of the tape formats - but with a difference: it's digital! DV video cameras offer excellent quality, reaonable recording length and compact, lightweight packaging.

There are a huge range of DV video cameras on the market, and they offer an affordable way to get into digital video, normally including a DV-out connection - great for transferring your videos onto a PC for editing or recording directly onto a DVD, if you have a DVD recorder.

DVD Video Cameras

DVD video cameras offer the unique benefit of allowing you to record directly onto DVD - although before you get too excited, these aren't full size DVDs - instead, they are 8cm diameter mini-DVDs - great for portability, but unfortunately only providing 30 minutes of video recording time on each disc.

DVD Video cameras offer DV-quality recordings - just like DV Camcorders, but with the added practicality of recording directly onto DVDs - meaning that your disks can be taken straight from the camera and played in home DVD players, games consoles and computers.

HDD Video Cameras

HDD camcorders are at present the newest and most expensive type of video camera available, but they do offer some remarkable advantages - with huge capacities - a HDD camcorder with a 20GB hard disk can record up to 24 hours of DV-quality digital video, for example.

Capacities like this place HDD video cameras in a different league, capacity-wise, and this alone is a good reason to consider one if you can. Of course, there is a downside to this design, which is that if the hard disk does fill up while you are out and about (on holiday, for example), there is nothing you can do about it without deleting some footage or downloading it all to a PC, neither of which may be desirable...