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Dissecting a Digital Camcorder

WARNING! Don't Try This at Home!
The Editors of Videomaker do not recommend opening your digital camcorder's case under any circumstances. Doing so will certainly void your warranty, and may cause permanent damage to the digital camcorder or personal harm to you. We recommend that you always have your video camera repaired by a trained professional.
Dooley may be a little crusty, but he's the kind of guy you can trust with your digital camcorder. So when mine broke, he was the man to fix it. This was the perfect chance to learn the inside story about this amazing piece of technology, from the moment the light hits the lens to the final TV output.

"There's a lot of technology crammed into this little thing," said Dooley, who actually seemed to glow when he talked tech. "It has lenses, motors, gyros, microphones, a clock, a tape deck, a computer and a TV. Not to mention a dozen input and output jacks. It's a robot-operated entertainment center in the palm of your hand. So, how did you break it?" he asked.

"I didn't break it; it just stopped working," I said, somewhat defensively.

"Well, let's crack 'er open," Dooley replied. "And don't worry, I won't hurt your baby. Now hand me that tool kit."

I passed him a large kit containing everything from a basic screwdriver to a space-age remote control. In a few seconds he had the back off the camcorder and was pulling its guts out.

"Here's where it all starts," he said, holding up my precious zoom lens. "The lens is one of the most important, and expensive, parts of the camcorder. No amount of electronic wizardry can make up for a crummy lens."

He pointed at two small gray cylinders alongside the lenses. "See these? These are little motors to control the autofocus and the zoom," he said. "Essentially, this is a sophisticated robot eye that responds to what the digital camcorder brain tells it to do. Yours has an optical stabilizer built into the lens; a squishy prism that uses a tiny gyroscope to keep the image steady."

"What's that?" I asked, pointing to a chip the size of a postage stamp on a tiny circuit …