Calling All Cams: Buyer's Guide

Camcorder manufacturers offer models in several different video formats, each with its own specific appeal. This article and accompanying buyer's guide will help you wade through all of the choices.

Whether you are shopping for a new camcorder, or just want to understand the differences between all the different formats, you may be overwhelmed by the vast array of letters and numbers: VHS, Hi8, Mini DV, S-VHS-C, etc. This article will help you understand the similarities and differences between the various camcorder formats, so you can select the model that's right for you. To make the story easier to follow, we've divided our camcorder guide into three sections: standard grade analog formats, high grade analog formats and digital formats.

Standard Grade Analog Formats

VHS

The oldest format still around is VHS. VHS beat the technically-superior Betamax (or Beta) format by simply out-marketing Sony, the folks who invented Beta. VHS is the parent format to three others you'll see in our list: VHS-C, S-VHS and S-VHS-C.

VHS, and its entire offspring, use 1/2-inch-wide videotapes. VHS has a linear audio track that can be split in half to allow stereo recording, albeit with very little fidelity. But for good audio, VHS hi-fi, a system of depth-multiplexing FM signals under the video signal, is the only way to go.

VHS has many advantages. Just about everyone has a VHS VCR, so if you're out shooting, you can play back your footage almost anywhere (although you'll need an adapter for VHS-C tapes). Also, tapes are cheap, with decent quality T-120s (allowing two hours of recording time) sold for as cheap as 10 for $10. While its image is not too sharp (max. of 240 horizontal lines of resolution), VHS produces a picture that is so ubiquitous that for most people it is what a videotaped image is supposed to look like. (See Resolving to Understand Resolution sidebar.)

A drawback to shooting onto VHS is simply the size of the cassettes, and therefore the size of the camcorders. VHS camcorders, such as the two from Panasonic, are huge in size when compared with camcorders of smaller formats. Bigger camcorders mean more weight, which means more work to get your footage shot. On the other hand, these heavier, shoulder-mounted camcorders tend to capture steadier shots than the hand-held variet…