Videomaker's Annual 2009 Camcorders Buyer's Guide (page 2)

$500 - $1,500 Higher & Higher

Now things are starting to get serious as the prices rise steeply from the intermediate range and go up, up, up to as high as $1,500. This is also the most interesting portion of the price spectrum as the widest variety of products can be found here.

Tapes, DVDs, hard drives and flash memory provide users at this level amazing images and stunning sound quality. Products start from slightly higher priced hobbyist camcorders to a prosumer level of quality. As the name and the prices imply, these camcorders tend to have fewer automatic settings (although those are still available) and far more manual adjustments for white balance, audio levels and other controls. They may also have external connections for earphones, hand mics, on-camcorder lights, etc.

At this price, the capabilities of the camcorders tend to increase as the price rises. Lenses are beginning to be made from glass, and they're larger too-allowing more light to enter for a more vibrant image. Greater optical zoom ranges means you can get your shots closer even though you're far away without resorting to the pixilation of digital zoom.

Also, features not available at a lower price start to appear as the prices climb. Need a headphone jack? Most of the products in this price range have them, as well as external functions for manual focusing, external audio inputs for a hardwired microphone or wireless microphone receiver, a white balance button for precise control of the video image color and a camcorder-top mount for an external battery light.

Your choice of the medium upon which the image is recorded has also grown a great deal. What used to be a sprinkling of a few recording formats has turned into a flood: Mini DV: Still common, but tape is quickly fading away.

DVD: Popular because of the compatibility with most modern home DVD players and convenience of use. Good quality picture and sound but not many are being produced.

Flash Memory: Using either built-in memory or replaceable memory cards, records images, usually in the MPEG-4 format. Still a relatively new medium, the disadvantage is the visual information needs to be offloaded to a hard drive before new video may be recorded. (This is what the Flip cameras use.)

HDV: The first high-definition format, which uses Mini DV tapes to record in either 720p or 1080i. Provides images that are generally clear and sharp, but the footage from any HD camcorder requires a lot of computer horsepower to edit.

AVCHD: An acronym for "Advanced Video Codec High Definition". Not so much a format as a new codec (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 to be precise). AVCHD video can be recorded onto 8cm DVDs, memory cards, internal flash memory or hard drives.

HDD: Durable and spacious disk drives are cheap and available. They store huge amounts of video data, which must be copied to another hard drive or burned to disc before the camcorder can record more video.

$1500 - Sky's the Limit

This is the area above $1500 where the pros start to play. People in this rarefied price strata load up on the goodies - tripods, lights, audio gear, editing software and a high-horsepower computer. It's astonishing how quickly the bills can pile up for the newest and best of everything. Camcorders are especially prone to this phenomenon. A slight advance in technology or a skosh more resolution can cost some serious coin.

Most people investing this kind of money do it because they are actually charging for their services, producing the next big documentary, or make indy or wedding productions. These folks need a larger lens barrel for more light input, better glass in the lens for reduced distortion and the largest chips possible for stunning color and clarity. Normally, audio connections are provided with one or two XLR connections and each audio channel input can be independently controlled. Construction is far more rugged and built for the daily abuse and grind of regular, constant use. Small sized but powerful camcorders are starting to make their presence known in this arena.

These camcorders have better resolution in all lighting situations, from birthday candle light to high noon in summer; colors are crisper, definition sharper and the overall "feel" of the image is as good as it can get. High-definition camcorders in this range are the norm rather than the exception. Bleeding-edge technology has a price and it can be quite high. The good news is this technology eventually trickles down to those of us who have mortgage and car payments and finds itself in more reasonably price offerings a year or two down the road.

Check out the grids, drool over the features and ogle the specifications in this feature and just remember: that dream camcorder well beyond your reach today may well be sitting in your gadget bag a few years from now- a ho-hum electronic marvel that, a few product cycles ago, was beyond the reach of all but a few. Enjoy!

Click here to download a PDF Videomaker's Annual 2009 Camcorders Buyer's Guide .

Randy Hansen is a television news chief photographer.