Buy the Camcorder of your Dreams Today!

THERE ARE BIG ONES,
little ones, old ones and new ones. Analog, digital, remote controlled and palm-size ones. Still shots, NightShots, LaserLinks and memory chips. Fully automatic and manually controlled ones. There's Hi8, regular 8, Digital8, MiniDV, and more. Find out from these buyer's guides today's models at today's prices. Go ahead, poke around and pick the cam for you.

Wait a Minute. Not so Fast
OK. Let's slow down a little. After all, picking the perfect camcorder can be fun or frustrating. Identifying the format, features and prices that best suit your personal needs will guide you towards a final purchase decision. If you intend to produce only home videos, or are technically challenged, the less expensive, standard grade, analog units will most likely do the trick. However, if you want a camcorder for professional use, or you want to produce some fairly sophisticated projects, or edit on your computer, the high grade analog and digital formats will better suit you. More on those later. Right now, let's take a look at the difference between all the major formats.

Format Facts
Consumer camcorders can be classified into three categories. Standard grade analog (VHS, VHS-C, 8mm), high grade analog (S-VHS, S-VHS-C and Hi8), and digital (MiniDV and Digital8). The main differences between standard and high grades of analog camcorders are image and audio quality. High grade formats noticeably increase image resolution and audio fidelity over standard grade. The digital formats record a digital signal that significantly increases resolution over high grade analog.
The increased image quality, combined with the diversity of features, coincide with higher price tags. The best thing to do is determine what you really need and how much you want to spend. Then, based on the features the different models offer, you will be able to find the best model for your needs. Let's take a look at some of the products available…