Manual Focus - There are times when the auto focus of a camcorder has trouble focusing on a subject. This can be close objects, objects behind glass, and when trying to focus in low light. This is where you would want to override the automatic focusing system. Manual focus is done either with a zoom ring, which gives the feel of a camera focus, or done on the LCD touchscreen where you can adjust it onscreen. Most professional camcorders have a focus ring, but it is rare in consumer camcorders. All of our top-rated camcorders (that have the top-pick tag) have manual focus capability.

Recording Format - Camcorders record their video in a variety of formats. This includes.

• MINIDV TAPE - The MiniDV tape has been a very popular format for recording video and there are many camcorders that utilize this format. Most professionals still use tape. For standard definition camcorders (not HD), the video is transferred with little or no compression to the tape, giving the maximum quality which is important for editing should you want to produce your own productions with the videos you take. Tapes are inexpensive and can give you 60 to 90 minutes depending on selected quality. To view MiniDV camcorders on your TV you can hookup the camcorder using included cables. If you are going to be doing a lot of editing of the video, MiniDV camcorders are a good choice. The best high definition camcorders use tape utilizing HDV compression. The top video quality reported by professional reviews still comes from MiniDV camcorders. The top rated MiniDV high definition camcorders are the Canon Vixia HV30 and the Sony HDR-HC9. The top rated MiniDV standard definition camcorders are the Sony HC96 and the Panasonic GS-320.
  
  
• HARD DRIVE - A relatively new format for recording video is a camcorder with a built in hard drive (HDD). The advantage of a built in harddrive is that you don't have to bother with DVDs or Tapes. The built in harddrive can hold video equivalent to about 8-10 MiniDV tapes or more. This should be more than enough for normal vacations and events. When you get home after shooting the video, you can then download the video to your computer with the included cables to later burn to DVD, edit, or archive. You can view video directly on your TV by hooking up the included cables to your TV set. Top-pick camcorders with harddrives include the Canon HG10 (high definition), HDR-SR11 (high definition), the Sony HDR-SR7 (high definition), and the Sony SR200.
  
  
• FLASH MEMORY - A new group of camcorders use tiny SD memory cards (or internal memory) to store video. These camcorders are generally tiny in size, with smaller video sensors, and smaller lenses. They hold varying amounts of video per card, and rely on heavy compression. The bottom line is that although these tiny camcorders are great for portability, you cannot expect to get video of the quality of a normal sized camcorder. But they do have their place, since you are more likely to take a small camcorder with you than a larger one. They have no moving parts and are shockproof. There are exceptions, and in 2008 Canon has introduced the first FLASH camcorder that has received a top pick from Smart-Review. This is the Canon Vixia HF100 which has a large video sensor, and a great lens, and super compact. The professional reviews are outstanding. This is sure to be a very popular choice.
  
  
• DVD - Many of camcorders are now recording directly to DVD. These DVDs will play directly in your home DVD player with no modifications. These mini DVDs are inexpensive, and give you between 20 minutes and 60 minutes of recording time per disc depending on the quality setting. You cannot edit DVDs directly, but must transfer the video to a computer and re-edit them. DVD camcorders use compression to fit them on the disc, which can degrade the video slightly compared to those camcorders that use MiniDV tape (which has little or no compression). Some record high definition to DVD. For video quality, Smart-Review believes that the other recording formats are more desirable. The top rated camcorders using the DVD format are the Sony DVD408, and the Sony HDR-UX7 (high definition).
  
  

Optical Zoom - Optical Zoom refers to how close an object can be "zoomed in". So a camcorder with a 10x zoom can bring a distant object about 2 times closer than a camera with a 5x zoom. Larger zoom lenses can give you more options. If you see a reference to digital zoom, this is an electronic representation of optical zoom, and really just crops the picture and you lose resolution. With optical zoom, you do not lose resolution. Digital zoom should not be a consideration in our opinion to purchasing a camcorder, while optical zoom should be considered. Most camcorders come with a 10x zoom which is good for most applications.

Image Stabilization (IS) - Image Stabilization is a technology that reduces the blurry video that you frequently get in low light and when using a zoom lens. (Sony camcorders call their image stabilization SteadyShot). This technology compensates for any movement of the camera when you are holding it to give you sharp images, even in low light. This is a very valuable and useful option to have. This also helps when using your zoom out to its full magnification. As you zoom in, any shaking of the camcorder is magnified. Almost all camcorders now come with image stabilization. Optical (as opposed to digital) stabilization is considered to be better. The Canon Vixia HV30, Canon Vixia HF100, Sony HDR-HC9, Sony HDR-SR11 have optical image stabilization.

LCD Size - LCD Size refers to the size of the screen that you use for both menus, and composing your shot. LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display, the current technology used for such displays. A larger LCD screen is easier to see, however you also want to look at how many pixels are used for the display as this determines how sharp, and how much detail you will see on the screen. So for both LCD size and number of pixels on the screen, higher is better. Camcorders with the largest highest resolution LCD screens include the Sony FX1 which has a large 3.5 inch screen.

The new for 2008 Sony HDR-SR11 has a super high resolution screen (3.2 inch) with 921,000 pixels (up from 211,000 pixels from last years model).

CCD Size/Type - Light that comes through the lens of the camcorder hits a sensor, this is the eye of the camera, and called a CCD (Charge-coupled device) or for some Sony Camcorders CMOS. The size of the sensor generally determines quality and low light performance. The larger the CCD, the better the quality of the video, as well as sensitivity to light. Professional camcorders have the largest CCDs, while the lowest end cheapest camcorders have the smallest. In low light, a larger CCD will have less noise than a smaller one. Noise is a speckling or grainy texture to the video. Most of our top-rated "top-pick" camcorders have 1/3 inch and larger sized CCD's, while inexpensive camcorders generally have 1/6 inch or smaller. The Canon HV30, and the Canon HG10 both have the largest CCD of any consumer camcorder at 1/2.7 inch and have the best video image quality as well.

3-CCD Imaging Sensor - Another type of camcorder uses what is called a 3-CCD sensor. This is composed of 3 CCD's. A 3-CCD camcorder can capture more information than a single chip camcorder therefore, in theory, 3-CCD camcorders will be able to record colors better and more accurately. Most professional camcorders are of this type. Of our top-rated "top-pick" consumer camcorders, only the Panasonic VDR-D300, Panasonic GS-320, and the Panasonic SDR-H200 have a 3-ccd imaging sensor.

Still images and megapixels - Some camcorders have the ability to record both video and still images. Some are very low resolution, and some as high as 4 megapixels. A megapixel is a unit of graphic resolution, or how much can a digital camera/camcorder can capture for still pictures. The higher the megapixels, generally the better the picture quality will be as you have more room to crop your pictures, or if you want, to blow up the picture to much larger sizes when printing. All else being equal, the higher the megapixels, the better. You should not expect the pictures produced by a camcorder to be up to a high end digital camera, but they can provide decent quality depending on the model.

Firewire/USB - When you connect your camcorder to your computer (to transfer the video to your computer's hard drive), you connect it through a wire. This wire will either be USB 2.0 (most new computers have this), or Firewire (a.k.a. IEEE1394). Both connections are about the same speed. All recent computers have USB, but some older ones have USB 1.0 which is too slow to transfer video. Firewire is on many but not all computers. If you do not have firewire or USB 2.0, then you need to buy an inexpensive USB 2.0 or firewire card and install it on your computer. Camcorders can come with a USB 2.0 connection, a firewire connection or both.

Special Features Column - Camcorders come with a variety of features, some not seen on other camcorders and others common. We list those in this column. Below are some of the common features listed. Also note that in this column you have access to Reviews and to the size and weight of the camcorder. The weight is usually without a battery.

• Firewire/USB - When you connect your camcorder to your computer (to transfer the video to your computer's hard drive), you connect it through a wire. This wire will either be USB 2.0 (most new computers have this), or Firewire (a.k.a. IEEE1394). Both connections are about the same speed. All recent computers have USB, but some older ones have USB 1.0 which is too slow to transfer video. Firewire is on many but not all computers. If you do not have firewire or USB 2.0, then you need to buy an inexpensive USB 2.0 or firewire card and install it on your computer. Camcorders can come with a USB 2.0 connection, a firewire connection or both.

• Active Interface Accessory Shoe - Sony and other camcorders have what is called an accessory shoe. This is used to attach many accessories such as microphones and video lights. Many are powered, which means that the accessory draws power from the camcorder and does not have its own power supply. The accessory shoe is very useful, as it gives you many options. See our accessories page for each top-rated camcorder to see accessories that will fit the accessory shoe.

• Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound - Recording in 5.1-channel surround sound you can now experience your home movies with active sounds coming from all directions. Enjoy your personal home movies the way you experienced them while recording. Optional microphones can be purchased to enhance this feature (see our accessories page for each camcorder). This feature is available primarily on Sony camcorders, such as the HDR-SR11, Sony DVD408, Sony SR200, and the HDR-UX7 .

• Super Nightshot Infrared System - With Sony's NightShot Infrared System you can capture natural looking video, even when shooting in low light. Record subjects up to 20 feet away using the built-in infrared system.

• Wireless Remote - A wireless remote is included with most camcorders. It can allow you to control the playback of the camera when hooked up to a TV set, and some will allow remote operation of the camera as well when recording.

• HDD Smart Protection System - A new feature is implemented on the HDR-SR11, and the Sony SR200. This is the HDD Smart Protection System. If you should accidently drop your camcorder, it will sense this and shut off and protect the internal harddrive from damage, thereby saving your precious videos.

• Cinema/Cinematic Mode - The Cinematic mode is meant to simulate the look of film. Some modes will adjust the film speed (in frames/second) to further make the video look like film.

• Microphone Jack/ Headphone Jack - Many camcorders connect through the accessory shoe (at the top of the camcorder). Some give you even more flexibility and give you a microphone jack (for external microphones) and a headphone jack for monitoring the sound while recording. The headphone jack is useful to see if you are getting good sound to your camcorder, as you are heaing what it will ultimately record.

• AVCHD and HDV Recording Types - High definition camcorders must compress video to fit it on Tapes, DVDs, or into interal HDD hard drives. The two latest types are HDV and AVCHD. Both types give excellent picture quality. The AVCHD is based on a newer Mpeg 4 compression technology and should be seen in many more HD camcorders in the coming year.

• Easy Handycam Button - This feature is available on many Sony Handcam camcorders. Using a camcorder can be intimidating for some people, so with a press of the Easy Handycam button, most of the advanced features of the camcorder are locked out, leaving only the buttons essential for recording operational.

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