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- Complete features glossary
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Important features HD Camcorders
A flip-out liquid-crystal-display (LCD) monitor is common on all camcorders. And a wide-screen LCD monitor is becoming more common. You’ll find it useful for reviewing footage you’ve shot and easier to use than the eyepiece viewfinder for certain shooting poses. Some LCD monitors are hard to use in sunlight, a drawback of models that have only a monitor and no eyepiece. Some LCD's have a brightness boost adjust.
Screens vary from 2½ to 4 inches measured diagonally, with a larger screen offered as a step-up feature on higher-priced models. Because an LCD monitor uses batteries faster than an eyepiece viewfinder does, you don't have as much recording time when the LCD is in use.
An image stabilizer automatically reduces most of the shaking that occurs from holding the camcorder as you record a scene. Most stabilizers are electronic but some are optical. Either type can be effective, though mounting the camcorder on a tripod is the surest way to get steady images. If you're not using a tripod, try holding the camcorder with both hands and bracing both elbows against your chest.
Full auto switch essentially lets you point and shoot. The camcorder automatically adjusts the color balance, shutter speed, focus, and aperture (also called the "iris" or "f-stop" with camcorders).
Autofocus adjusts for maximum sharpness. Manual focus override might be needed for problem situations, such as low light. (With some camcorders, you might have to tap buttons repeatedly to get the focus just right.) With many models, you can also control exposure, shutter speed, and white balance.
The zoom is typically a finger control--press one way to zoom in, the other to widen the view. The rate at which the zoom changes depends on how hard you press the switch. Typical optical zoom ratios range from 10:1 to 40:1. The zoom relies on optical lenses, just like a film camera (hence the term "optical zoom"). Many camcorders offer a digital zoom to extend the range to 400:1 or more, but at a lower picture quality than optical zoom gives.
All camcorders have various recording modes that yield different levels of quality and capacity. The best quality might be called HQ or SP, depending on the recording medium. XP or LP gives you more capacity at a lower quality. Disc-based, hard-drive, and memory formats have a variety of modes that trade off recording time for image quality.
Quick review lets you see the last few seconds of a scene without having to press a lot of buttons.
For special lighting situations, preset auto-exposure settings can be helpful. A "snow and sand" setting, for example, adjusts shutter speed or aperture to accommodate a very bright scene.
A light provides some illumination for close shots when the image would otherwise be too dark. Backlight compensation increases the exposure slightly when your subject is lighted from behind and silhouetted. An infrared-sensitive recording mode (also known as Night Shot, zero lux, or MagicVu) allows shooting in very dim or dark situations, using infrared emitters. You can use it for nighttime shots, although colors won't register accurately in this mode.
Audio/video inputs let you record material from another camcorder or from a VCR, useful for copying part of another video onto your own. Unlike a built-in microphone, an external microphone that is plugged into a microphone jack won't pick up noises from the camcorder itself and it typically improves audio performance.
A camcorder with digital still capability lets you take snapshots, which can be downloaded to your computer. The photo quality is generally inferior to that of a good still camera, although higher-cost camcorders typically offer better photo quality than lower-cost ones.
Features that might help editing include a built-in title generator, a time-and-date stamp, and a time code, which is a frame reference of exactly where you are on the recording media--the hour, minute, second, and frame.
A remote control helps when you're using the camcorder as a playback device or when you're using a tripod. Programmed recording (a self-timer) starts the camcorder recording at a preset time.
A flip-out liquid-crystal-display (LCD) monitor is common on all camcorders. And a wide-screen LCD monitor is becoming more common. You’ll find it useful for reviewing footage you’ve shot and easier to use than the eyepiece viewfinder for certain shooting poses. Some LCD monitors are hard to use in sunlight, a drawback of models that have only a monitor and no eyepiece. Some LCD's have a brightness boost adjust.
Screens vary from 2½ to 4 inches measured diagonally, with a larger screen offered as a step-up feature on higher-priced models. Because an LCD monitor uses batteries faster than an eyepiece viewfinder does, you don't have as much recording time when the LCD is in use.
An image stabilizer automatically reduces most of the shaking that occurs from holding the camcorder as you record a scene. Most stabilizers are electronic but some are optical. Either type can be effective, though mounting the camcorder on a tripod is the surest way to get steady images. If you're not using a tripod, try holding the camcorder with both hands and bracing both elbows against your chest.
Full auto switch essentially lets you point and shoot. The camcorder automatically adjusts the color balance, shutter speed, focus, and aperture (also called the "iris" or "f-stop" with camcorders).
Autofocus adjusts for maximum sharpness. Manual focus override might be needed for problem situations, such as low light. (With some camcorders, you might have to tap buttons repeatedly to get the focus just right.) With many models, you can also control exposure, shutter speed, and white balance.
The zoom is typically a finger control--press one way to zoom in, the other to widen the view. The rate at which the zoom changes depends on how hard you press the switch. Typical optical zoom ratios range from 10:1 to 40:1. The zoom relies on optical lenses, just like a film camera (hence the term "optical zoom"). Many camcorders offer a digital zoom to extend the range to 400:1 or more, but at a lower picture quality than optical zoom gives.
All camcorders have various recording modes that yield different levels of quality and capacity. The best quality might be called HQ or SP, depending on the recording medium. XP or LP gives you more capacity at a lower quality. Disc-based, hard-drive, and memory formats have a variety of modes that trade off recording time for image quality.
Quick review lets you see the last few seconds of a scene without having to press a lot of buttons.
For special lighting situations, preset auto-exposure settings can be helpful. A "snow and sand" setting, for example, adjusts shutter speed or aperture to accommodate a very bright scene.
A light provides some illumination for close shots when the image would otherwise be too dark. Backlight compensation increases the exposure slightly when your subject is lighted from behind and silhouetted. An infrared-sensitive recording mode (also known as Night Shot, zero lux, or MagicVu) allows shooting in very dim or dark situations, using infrared emitters. You can use it for nighttime shots, although colors won't register accurately in this mode.
Audio/video inputs let you record material from another camcorder or from a VCR, useful for copying part of another video onto your own. Unlike a built-in microphone, an external microphone that is plugged into a microphone jack won't pick up noises from the camcorder itself and it typically improves audio performance.
A camcorder with digital still capability lets you take snapshots, which can be downloaded to your computer. The photo quality is generally inferior to that of a good still camera, although higher-cost camcorders typically offer better photo quality than lower-cost ones.
Features that might help editing include a built-in title generator, a time-and-date stamp, and a time code, which is a frame reference of exactly where you are on the recording media--the hour, minute, second, and frame.
A remote control helps when you're using the camcorder as a playback device or when you're using a tripod. Programmed recording (a self-timer) starts the camcorder recording at a preset time.
