New Camcorder Ratings: Flash models take over

This past Black Friday reportedly saw a big increase in sales of camcorders from the previous year, which no doubt was fueled by the explosion of pocket camcorder models.

If you're interested in either a pocket camcorder or a full-sized standard-definition or high-definition model, you'll be happy to know we've included a number of the newest models in our camcorder Ratings (available to subscribers). We've also added four new pocket camcorders.

The new models differ in many ways—some are jam packed with features. Others are more Spartan. Some cost almost $1000, while others cost less than $100. But there's one attribute all the newly-Rated models share: they all store video on flash-memory.

They either use on-board, internal memory, or store video on memory cards, just like a digital camera. (Memory card prices have dropped considerably over the past couple of years.) And some models in our Ratings use both types of flash memory.

Of course, we still rate other camcorders that use different formats in our Ratings, including miniDV tape, hard-drive and miniDVD discs. But there's no doubt that flash has become the dominant and perhaps the most popular format for full-sized HD and SD camcorders as well as pocket camcorders, which use only flash memory.

You can check out how well all the latest models fared in our camcorder Ratings.

—Terry Sullivan